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 ↓
Rich Plum 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 the batter
Soften the butter by holding it in front of the fire for 2-3 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine the softened butter, milk, treacle, and moist sugar.
Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.
Fold in the sultana raisins, currants, and citron or candied lemon peel.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
- Unsalted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, moist crumb.
- Treacle
- Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep molasses-like flavor.
- Moist sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and browned.
- Milk
- Adds liquid to hydrate the flour and form a smooth batter.
The step that matters
Adding the flour and baking powder. Mixing until smooth is important because overmixing flour develops gluten, which can make the cake tough. Stop once the batter is smooth so the crumb stays tender.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, molasses, sugar, raisin, currant):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, molasses, sugar, raisin, currant. 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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