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 ↓
Sultana Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Combine 2 cups of flour in a bowl.
Rub in ½ cup of butter until well mixed.
Add 2 ½ cups of sugar, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and 2 ½ cups of sultana raisins.
Grate the rind of 1 lemon into the mixture.
Chop 1 ounce of candied peel and add it to the bowl.
In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of milk with the yolks of 2 eggs.
Stir the milk and egg mixture into the other ingredients until combined.
Grease a cake tin.
Whip the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the batter.
Bake and cool
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Once baked, turn the cake out of the tin and let it cool on its side or on a wire rack.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Yolks bind the batter and enrich it; whipped whites add lift and airiness.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps brown the crust as it bakes.
- Sultana raisins
- Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites trap air that gives lift; overmixing or deflating them during folding makes the cake dense. Fold gently, just until no white streaks remain.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, raisin, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, raisin, milk, 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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