Name: Sun-raysed Eggless Cake
Ingredients: 1 lb short crust or puff pastry; 6 oz SUN-RAYSED currants; 1 teaspoon mixed spice; 3 oz sugar; 4 oz butter; water

Why it works: Currant and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,856 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Sun-raysed Eggless Cake

12 pieces

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.

Prepare the pastry

Divide the pastry into 12 pieces and roll each into a round of even size.
Mix the currants, sugar, and mixed spice together.
Place about 2 teaspoons of the mixture on each round of pastry, add a tiny bit of butter, and a few drops of water.

Shape and bake

Moisten the edges, fold over the filling, and flatten slightly with your hand.
Turn over and roll very lightly, then place them in a baking tin.
Brush the tops with beaten egg, make 3 or 4 cuts on top, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 25 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,856 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,256 recipes

Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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

Pastry: Forms the flaky, enclosing shell that holds the filling while baking.
Currants: Provide the sweet, chewy fruit filling with concentrated flavour.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps the currants caramelise slightly at the edges.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the filling and encourages golden browning.