Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓
Bread Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, combine the risen bread dough, butter, sugar, eggs, raisins, nutmeg, and enough flour to achieve a cake-like consistency.
Pour the mixture into pans and let it stand for 15 minutes.
Bake
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.
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.
-
Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Risen bread dough
- Provides the yeast-leavened base that gives the cake its bread-like crumb and character.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the finished cake.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning in the oven.
- Sifted flour
- Adds structure and adjusts the batter to a proper cake consistency.
The step that matters
Adding enough flour. Flour sets the batter's structure. Too little leaves the cake wet and dense, while too much makes it dry and tough, so the batter should reach a cake-like consistency before baking.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, sugar, egg, raisin, flour):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Capersfits less well
- Turmericfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, sugar, egg, raisin, flour. 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
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Orange Potato Bread80 recipes
Brown Bread Pudding47 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.