Name: Dutch Cake
Ingredients: 3 pounds self-raising flour; 1 pound sugar; ½ pound butter; 1 pound raisins; 1 pound currants; 1 quart milk; 3 eggs; 1 nutmeg, grated

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 ↓

Dutch Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the milk until combined.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until smooth.
Fold in the raisins, currants, and grated nutmeg.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Self-raising flour: Provides the main structure and, with its built-in raising agent, lifts the batter as it bakes.
Butter: Creaming with sugar traps air and adds fat for a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Sugar: Creamed with butter to add sweetness and help create a light texture.
Milk: Adds moisture and hydrates the flour so the batter forms a smooth, cohesive mix.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, raisin, milk, egg, nutmeg):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Lemonfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, raisin, milk, egg, nutmeg. 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.