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Raisin Filling for Layer Cakes

A sweet filling made from coffee sugar syrup, beaten egg whites, and raisins for layer cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raisin Filling for Layer Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup and egg whites

  1. Boil the coffee sugar and water for 5 minutes.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  3. Pour the boiling syrup over the beaten egg whites.

Add the raisins

  1. Seed and chop the raisins.

  2. Mix the chopped raisins with the egg mixture until cold.

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.

  1. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Coffee + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together487 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + raisintop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Coffee sugar
Dissolves into a syrup that adds sweetness and body to the filling.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the filling its light, airy structure.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling syrup over the beaten egg whites. The hot syrup partly cooks the egg white proteins and helps set the foam. If the syrup has cooled or is poured too slowly, the foam can lose volume and turn dense.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Bananafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, sugar, 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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