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 ↓
Nut 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the butter until creamy, then gradually add the sugar and beat until light.
Add the well-beaten eggs and mix well.
Make and bake the cake
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and combine with the flour mixed with cream of tartar.
Stir in the raisins and walnuts.
Pour the batter into a baking sheet and bake until golden.
Finish
Once cooled, ice with chocolate icing.
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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acidity that activates the baking soda, helping the cake rise and stay light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, beaten with butter, helps create a light, airy batter.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and combine with the flour mixed with cream of tartar. Baking soda must meet the acid in cream of tartar and liquid to release gas for rising. Mixing it thoroughly and then folding in the batter promptly helps keep the gas in the batter so the cake rises evenly.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, raisin, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, raisin, cream. 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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