Name: Polish Baba
Ingredients: 1 oz. salt; 1 lb. sugar; 7 oz. sultanas (raisins); A pinch of saffron boiled in water; 22 eggs; 2 lbs. butter; ⅓ cup sherry; ⅓ cup cream; 4 lbs. flour (divided)

Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Polish Baba

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.

In a bowl, mix 1 part of the flour with yeast and a small cup of tepid water to form a hollow mound.
In another bowl, mix the remaining 3 parts of flour with sugar, salt, cream, eggs, and butter to form a hollow mound.
Once the yeast mixture has risen, combine both mixtures and knead well.
Add the sherry, saffron, and sultanas to the dough and mix thoroughly.
Reserve a small portion of dough to line the mold before adding the sultanas.
Use a tall, tapering mold for baking.
Bake for about 1.5 hours at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Swap the saffron

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

Nutmegfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Capersfits about as well
Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, egg, butter, sherry, cream, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.