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 ↓
Nut 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk and add to the mixture.
Sift the flour with the cream of tartar and gradually add to the batter.
Fold in the nuts and raisins.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Nuts + raisintop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together490 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds fat that carries flavour and creates a tender crumb when creamed with sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, traps air that helps the cake rise and brown.
- Eggs
- Add structure as they set in the oven and bind the batter, and contribute moisture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise and brown.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, stabilising the air bubbles and supporting the rise with the baking soda.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk and add to the mixture.. Baking soda needs an acid in the batter to react and release gas for lift. Dissolving it fully in the milk first spreads it evenly, so the cake rises uniformly without pockets of soda or a bitter taste.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, cream, raisin):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, cream, 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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