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Dessert

Raisin Puffs

A steamed pastry made with flour, baking powder, water, sugar, raisins, butter, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Raisin Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, raisins, melted butter, eggs, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

  2. Pour the mixture into buttered cups or a mold.

Steam

  1. Steam for 30 minutes in cups or 1 hour in a mold.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 puffs together as they cook.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the puffs rise and turn light.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set around the steam.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the puffs.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Steam for the stated time. Steam is the only heat source here, so the puffs need the full time to set through. Lifting the lid or letting the steam drop can leave the centres wet and sunken.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, raisin, butter, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, raisin, butter, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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