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 ↓
Minnehaha 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the granulated sugar and softened butter.
Add the egg whites (or whole eggs) and mix well.
Stir in the cream of tartar.
Gradually add the sifted flour.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk, then add the dissolved baking soda and milk to the batter.
Divide the batter into 3 layers.
Bake until golden.
Make the filling and assemble
Boil the teacup of sugar with a little water until it becomes brittle in cold water.
Remove from heat.
Quickly stir into the well-beaten egg white.
Add the chopped raisins or hickory-nut meats and mix well.
Spread the filling between the layers and on top of the cake.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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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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.
- Egg whites
- Provide structure and lift as they set in the oven, giving the cake its airy texture.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites and keeps the batter light and fine-textured.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure once heated, setting the crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar for the filling. Sugar syrup must reach the right stage to turn brittle when tested in cold water. Undercooked syrup stays runny and will not set, while overcooked syrup turns bitter and hard. Removing it from heat promptly keeps the texture right when it is stirred into the egg white.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, cream, flour, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Coconutfits less well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cream, flour, 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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