Name: Loaf Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; ½ cup butter; 2 eggs; 2 cups flour; 1 cup currants or dried cherries, chopped; ½ cup sugar; 1 teaspoon baking soda; vinegar; extract or spice for flavor

Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Loaf Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Warm the molasses and mix in the butter.
Let the mixture cool, then stir in the eggs.
Add the flour, chopped currants or cherries, and sugar.
Mix in the baking soda and a splash of vinegar.
Flavor with your choice of extract or spice.

Bake

Pour into a loaf pan and bake until done.

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.

Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together693 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Molasses: Provides dark color, moisture and a deep, sweet flavor.
Eggs: Add structure and help bind the batter as they set in the oven.
Flour: Forms the structure of the cake as the batter bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the vinegar and molasses to lift the batter.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and richness.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, egg, flour, sugar, vinegar):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, egg, flour, sugar, vinegar. 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.