Name: A Common CaTce
Ingredients: ¾ pound flour; ½ pound butter; 4 ounces sugar; 4 eggs; ½ ounce caraway seeds; ⅓ cup raisin wine

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,071 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Mix flour, butter, sugar, eggs, caraway seeds, and raisin wine until well combined.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a greased baking pan.
Bake in the preheated oven 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Flour + raisintop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together9,071 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + carawaytop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,418 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + winetop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together8,517 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together122,858 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + raisintop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together12,480 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Butter: Adds richness and a tender crumb through its fat content.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help it set firm during baking.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crust turn golden brown.
Raisin wine: Adds moisture and fruity flavour to the batter.

Flavor stand-ins for the caraway

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

Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
Nutmegbetter flavor fit
Gingerabout as good a flavor fit
Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, raisin, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.