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 ↓
Minnehaha Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the cream of tartar, flour, and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the sweet milk.
Divide the batter into three layers and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Make the filling
For the filling, boil sugar and a little water until brittle in cold water.
Remove from heat and quickly stir into the beaten egg white.
Add the chopped raisins and mix well.
Assemble
Spread the filling between the layers and on top of the cake.
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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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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, when boiled, forms the brittle sugar filling.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for a light crumb.
- Eggs
- Provide structure and moisture, and whites add lift and body to the filling.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter and stabilises the whipped egg whites in the filling.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the layers together as they bake.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Stirring the hot sugar into the egg white. The sugar syrup must be hot and added quickly so it cooks and stiffens the egg white. If it cools or is stirred in slowly, the filling sets grainy or fails to thicken.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, cream, flour, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Coconutfits less well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cream, flour, milk. 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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