Name: Fruit Cake
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons of mixture; ½ cup raisins; ½ cup currants; ½ cup flour; ½ cup molasses

Why it works: Raisin and flour 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

In a bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the mixture with ½ cup raisins, ½ cup currants, ½ cup flour, and ½ cup molasses.
Bake the white mixture in two layers.
Bake the dark mixture in one layer and place it in the center with jelly spread between the layers.

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.

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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Currant + molassestop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,817 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture and deep color, and helps the cake brown.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they soften during baking.
Currants: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they soften during baking.