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 ↓
Hickory Nut or Walnut 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.
Make the batter
Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the sweet milk.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and powdered mace.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.
Fold in the chopped nuts.
Layer and bake
Line the cake pans with well-buttered paper.
Pour a layer of batter into the pans.
Add a layer of raisins and a handful of nuts.
Repeat the layers until the pans are two-thirds full.
Bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick inserted 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.
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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Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, binding the batter as they set in the oven.
- Fine white sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps hold air when creamed with butter.
- Sifted flour
- Forms the cake's structure once baked.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter to make the cake rise.
- Hickory nuts or walnuts
- Add fat and a toasty, nutty flavor and some texture.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form. Overmixing toughens the cake, so stop as soon as no dry streaks remain.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, coffee, raisin):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, coffee, 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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