Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Raised Loaf Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
In the evening, rub shortening into the fruit.
Mix 3 pints of milk with the fruit and add 1 yeast cake.
Add sugar and spices to taste.
In the morning, if the mixture is light, let it rise again.
Shape and bake
Dissolve 1 teaspoon of baking soda in a little water and add it to the mixture.
Put the mixture into pans and let it rise for a short time.
Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) until done.
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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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Mixed fruit
- Provides the bulk of the cake and its sweet, chunky texture throughout the loaf.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the dough and helps it hold together.
- Yeast cake
- Produces gas during rising, which lightens the mixture and gives it an airy crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the mixture's acidity to release gas, adding extra lift and helping browning.
The step that matters
Letting the mixture rise. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for a light crumb. Judging whether the mixture is light before adding baking soda matters, because an under-risen dough stays dense and an over-risen one can collapse in the oven.
“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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