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
Mix the batter
In a bowl, combine ½ pound of flour.
Rub in ¼ pound of butter until well mixed.
Add ¼ pound of sugar, baking powder, and ¼ pound of sultana raisins.
Grate the zest of the lemon into the mixture.
Chop the candied peel and add it to the bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix ½ cup of milk with the yolks of 2 eggs.
Combine the milk and egg mixture with the other ingredients and mix well.
Prepare the tin and fold
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 to cool on its side or on a sieve.
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
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender crumb by coating the flour particles.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb soft and moist.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks bind and enrich the batter, while whipped whites add lift and airiness.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps blend the batter into an even mixture.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whites hold air only while stiff. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the batter and makes the cake dense, so fold gently until just combined.
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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