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 ↓
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).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream together the dark brown sugar and butter.
Add the beaten eggs and mix well.
Stir in the sour milk (or sweet milk).
If using sour milk, add the baking soda; if using sweet milk, add the baking powder.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the baking powder.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
Fold in the raisins, currants, citron, brandy, wine, and spices.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.
Bake for 3 to 4 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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Flour + raisintop 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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
- Dark brown sugar
- Adds moisture, sweetness and a deep color to the crumb.
- Butter
- Provides fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during baking to give the cake structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten and starch network that gives the cake its structure.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas that helps the cake rise.
- Raisins
- Add moisture, chewy texture and sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Bake low and slow until the center is set. A dense, fruit-heavy batter needs gentle, long heat so the center cooks through and sets before the outside over-browns. Test the center with a toothpick rather than relying on time alone.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, raisin, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Apricotfits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, raisin, brandy. 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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