Name: Coffee Cake
Ingredients: 2 ¼ cups flour; 1 cup milk; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 egg; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 cup raisins; ¼ teaspoon salt; butter, sugar, and cinnamon for sprinkling

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 ↓

Coffee 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 bowl, rub together the butter and sugar.
Add the beaten egg, milk, and salt to the mixture.
Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing until combined.
Fold in the raisins.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Sprinkle the top with butter, sugar, and cinnamon.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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 of the cake as its gluten sets during baking.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the cake rises and stays light.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and helps the topping brown.
Milk: Adds moisture and helps form a soft, tender crumb.
Raisins: Add pockets of sweetness and chew throughout the cake.

“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.