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 ↓
German Pound Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sift the flour into a bowl using a wire sieve.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter until smooth.
Make the batter
Add 2 teaspoons of sifted flour, 2 teaspoons of sugar, and 1 egg to the butter, mixing well.
Gradually mix in the remaining flour, sugar, and eggs until fully combined.
Grate the lemon zest into the mixture.
Fold in the sultana raisins and chopped candied peel.
Stir all ingredients together until well combined.
Bake and cool
Line a cake tin with buttered parchment paper, placing three rounds at the bottom.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 2 hours.
Once baked, turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
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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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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Lemon + raisintop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,742 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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 structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Fresh butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and a tender crumb.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps aerate the creamed butter for a light texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure, moisture and richness.
- Sultana raisins
- Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
- Candied peel
- Adds concentrated citrus sweetness and aromatic flavour throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Creaming the butter and sugar. Beating softened butter until smooth and airy traps air that expands in the oven. Butter that is too cold or creamed too little gives a dense cake, while the eggs should be added gradually to prevent curdling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, raisin, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, raisin, 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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