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 ↓
Fruit Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a bowl, mix the raisins and currants with a little flour to coat them.
Make the batter
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the brandy, wine, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, grated nutmeg, sliced almonds, candied lemon, and citron.
Fold in the flour and the coated fruit mixture.
Add the molasses and baking soda (or baking powder) and mix until combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 3 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they are beaten in.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure once set by the oven heat.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, dark color and a deep sweetness.
- Baking soda or baking powder
- Reacts to lighten the batter so it rises in the oven.
- Raisins
- Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the cake.
The step that matters
Baking for the full time at low heat. Dense fruit cakes need a long, low bake so the center sets fully without the outside burning. Checking with a toothpick confirms the center is cooked through.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy, wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy, wine. 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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