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 ↓
Raisin Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a bowl, combine Graham flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, and salt.
Melt the butter and add it to the dry ingredients.
Mix and bake
Stir in the raisins and sour milk.
Add baking soda and mix until you have a stiff batter.
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.
Bake for 45 minutes.
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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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Graham flour
- Provides the bulk and structure of the loaf, with a coarse, hearty texture.
- Whole wheat flour
- Adds structure and a nutty, earthy flavor while supporting the loaf's body.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release carbon dioxide, leavening the bread.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
- Seedless raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the loaf.
The step that matters
Add baking soda and mix until you have a stiff batter. Baking soda needs acid from the sour milk to release gas. Once combined, the batter should be mixed just enough to be even, because overmixing develops gluten in the flour and can make the bread tough. Pour it into the pan promptly so the gas is trapped before it escapes.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, wheat, sugar, butter, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, wheat, sugar, butter, milk. 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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