Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Harrison Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Heat the molasses in a saucepan.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, lard, and sugar.
Add the heated molasses to the creamed mixture.
Stir in the ground cloves and baking soda.
Mix in the sour cream (or sour milk and extra butter).
Gradually add flour until the batter thickens to a gingerbread-like consistency.
Fold in raisins to taste.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,070 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Molasses
- Provides deep sweetness, dark color, and a moist, rich flavor characteristic of gingerbread-style cakes.
- Butter and lard
- Add fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor through the batter.
- Sour cream
- Adds acidity and moisture, and reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream or sour milk to release gas, leavening the cake.
- Flour
- Gives structure as it sets in the oven, thickening the batter into a cake crumb.
The step that matters
Adding the flour. Flour should be added gradually until the batter reaches a gingerbread-like thickness. Too much flour makes the cake dense and dry, while too little leaves it loose and unable to hold its structure during baking.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, sugar, cream, flour, raisin):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Jalapenofits about as well
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, sugar, cream, flour, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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