Why it works: Sugar and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Raisin Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a hair-like consistency.
Remove from heat and stir in the chopped raisins.
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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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Dissolves and cooks to a syrup that sets into the frosting's sweet, firm coating.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the cooked syrup.
The step that matters
Boil to a hair-like consistency. Sugar syrup changes character as its water boils off and its concentration rises. Stopping at the right point gives a frosting that sets properly, while boiling too long makes it hard or grainy and stopping too early leaves it runny.
“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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