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 ↓
Composition 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the beaten eggs and grated nutmeg, then mix in half of the flour.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk, strain it, and mix with the brandy.
Stir the milk mixture into the batter along with the remaining flour.
Fold in the raisins just before pouring the batter into the pan.
Bake
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
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 + nutmegtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as gluten and starch set during baking.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with butter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps form the batter's liquid base for even baking.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda in the milk and folding in the raisins at the right moment. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and mixed in promptly so it reacts evenly and lifts the batter. Folding raisins in last, just before panning, keeps them evenly distributed rather than sinking to the bottom.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, milk, egg, brandy, raisin):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Clovefits less well
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, milk, egg, brandy, raisin. 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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