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 ↓
Scripture 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the milk and molasses, mixing well.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.
Fold in the raisins.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake
Bake for 30-40 minutes or 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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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and color to the cake.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps it brown as it bakes.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, pourable batter.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and stirring only until smooth keeps the batter from becoming overmixed. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the cake dense and tough.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, milk, butter, molasses, cinnamon):
- Raisinthe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Blueberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, milk, butter, molasses, cinnamon. 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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