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 ↓
Loaf 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, rub together the butter and sugar.
Make the dough
Take half of the butter and sugar mixture and work it into the flour.
Add ½ pint of domestic yeast and mix to form a dough that is not quite as stiff as biscuit dough.
Allow the dough to rise until well risen.
Finish and bake
Incorporate the remaining butter and sugar, along with spices and brandy.
Once thoroughly light, add the eggs (beaten separately) and the fruit.
Let the mixture rise in the tins for 1 hour.
Bake for 1¼ hours.
Frost if desired; this cake will keep all winter.
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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Flour + buttertop 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).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender crumb by coating flour and trapping air.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, tender texture when creamed.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, and help the batter bind and rise.
- Raisins
- Provide sweetness, moisture, and chewy pockets throughout the cake.
- Baking soda
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and lighten.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs once the mixture is light. Eggs beaten separately and added to a well-aerated mixture help keep it stable and light. Adding them too quickly or to a dense mixture can cause curdling and a heavy crumb.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, wine, egg):
- Raisinthe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Lemonfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, wine, egg. 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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