Name: Drop Cakes
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 cup butter; 2 cups flour; 2 cups chopped raisins; 2 cups rolled oats; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ¾ teaspoon baking soda; 4 tablespoons milk

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 ↓

Drop Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the flour, chopped raisins, rolled oats, eggs, cinnamon, baking soda, and milk. Mix until well combined.

Bake

Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.

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.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Oats + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,394 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Creams with sugar to create air pockets and a tender, rich texture.
Sugar: Sweetens the dough and helps it brown during baking.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the drops together as they bake.
Eggs: Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
Baking soda: Reacts with the mixture to help the cakes rise and spread.
Rolled oats: Add chewy texture and absorb moisture from the dough.

Swap the raisin

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinthe original
Blueberryfits less well
Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, oats, egg, cinnamon, milk. 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.