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 ↓
Tea Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the yeast
Crumble yeast into a small jar, sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar, and cover with warm milk. Let it rise in a warm place for a few minutes.
Clean fruit with a little flour by rubbing them with a clean towel.
Make the dough
Mix fruit with flour, salt, and sugar.
Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the yeast mixture.
Beat egg and mix with a little warm milk. Add this to the flour mixture and stir in enough warm milk to make a stiff batter.
Work the dough well with a spoon, cover the basin with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Shape and bake
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board, cut it into four pieces, and form them into cakes.
Roll out the cakes and place them on a greased baking sheet.
Let them rise again for 10 minutes in a warm place.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.
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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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the dough that holds the cakes together.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars and produces gas that makes the dough rise.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps bind the dough for a tender crumb.
- Warm milk
- Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast while moistening the dough.
- Sultana raisins or currants
- Add sweetness and moisture pockets throughout the cakes.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning during baking.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise for 1 hour. Yeast needs a warm, undisturbed period to produce enough gas for the dough to expand; too cold or too short a rise leaves dense cakes.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Blueberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, 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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