Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓
Fruit Cake
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 large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda or baking powder, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined.
Add the fruit and liquids
Fold in the raisins, currants, sweet almond slices, candied lemon, and citron, ensuring they are well coated with flour.
Stir in the brandy, wine, and molasses until evenly mixed.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and smooth the top.
Bake for 3 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the fruit and batter together as the cake sets.
- Baking soda or baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
- Raisins
- Add moisture, chewiness and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
- Molasses
- Adds depth, moisture and browning to the crumb.
The step that matters
Fold the fruit in well coated with flour. Flour coating keeps the heavy fruit from sinking to the bottom of the batter and helps it stay evenly distributed as the cake bakes and sets.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy, wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy, wine. 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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