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 ↓
Fruit Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; 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 batter
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add two eggs at a time, beating well after each addition.
In another bowl, mix the currants, spice, flour, and candied peel.
Stir the dry mixture into the butter and sugar after the eggs are thoroughly beaten.
Bake
Pour the batter into well-buttered pans lined with parchment paper.
Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they are beaten in.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the fruit and batter together as it bakes.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the creamed butter hold air.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness, chewy moisture and fruit flavour throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Beating in the eggs. Adding eggs too quickly or before the butter and sugar are well creamed can cause the batter to curdle or separate. Adding them gradually, beating well after each addition, keeps the emulsion stable so the cake bakes evenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, raisin, sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin, sugar, butter, 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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