Skip to main content
Main

Raisin and Fig Bread

A yeasted bread with raisins, figs, and nuts baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Raisin and Fig Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk.

  2. In a large bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, white flour, corn meal, chopped figs, chopped raisins, chopped nuts, and sugar.

Mix and bake

  1. Add the sour milk and dissolved baking soda to the dry ingredients and mix well.

  2. Pour the mixture into a covered pan.

  3. Bake for 1.5 hours in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Wheat + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  5. Wheat + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together70 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas, helping the bread rise.
Sour milk
Provides moisture and its acidity activates the baking soda for lift.
Whole wheat flour
Adds structure and a hearty, nutty texture to the loaf.
White flour
Provides gluten structure so the loaf holds its shape.
Yellow corn meal
Adds coarse texture and a mild corn flavor to the crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda must react with the acid in the sour milk to release carbon dioxide. Mixing it fully into the liquid before combining helps distribute the gas evenly so the bread rises uniformly rather than in pockets.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, flour, corn, fig, raisin, milk, sugar):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, flour, corn, fig, raisin, milk, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Corn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesCream of Corn SoupCream of Corn Soup50 recipesGreen Corn SoupGreen Corn Soup46 recipesCornmeal GruelCornmeal Gruel41 recipes