Name: Plum Cake
Ingredients: 1 pound (4 cups) superfine flour, sifted; 1 pound fresh butter, cut into pieces; 1 pound bloom or muscatel raisins, seeded and halved; Currants or plums, washed and dried; Citron, cut into slips; Spices, powdered; ⅓ cup wine; ⅓ cup brandy; Eggs, beaten until thick and smooth

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 ↓

Plum Cake

Ingredients

1 pound (4 cups) superfine flour, sifted
1 pound fresh butter, cut into pieces
1 pound bloom or muscatel raisins, seeded and halved
Currants or plums, washed and dried
Citron, cut into slips
Spices, powdered
⅓ cup wine
⅓ cup brandy
Eggs, beaten until thick and smooth

Directions

Prepare the fruit and spices, and sift the flour into a large flat dish. Dry the flour by the fire.
Use only the best fresh butter to avoid spoiling the cake's taste.
Pick and wash the currants or plums, then dry them well.
Infuse the powdered spices in the wine and brandy overnight.
Mix the citron with the raisins and currants, dredging all the fruit with flour to prevent sinking in the cake.
Beat the eggs in a broad shallow pan until thick and smooth, resembling a good boiled custard.
In a deep earthen pan, stir the butter and sugar until light, thick, and creamy.
For best results, have a strong person assist with stirring the butter and sugar and give the final stirring to the cake.
Prepare ingredients the day before for best results, and bake the cake by 10 or 11 AM.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,427 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, raisin, wine, brandy, egg):

Figfits about as well
Vanillafits about as well
Currantthe original
Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, raisin, wine, brandy, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.