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 ↓
Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sponge
Melt the butter in the warm milk.
Add the sugar and yeast to the mixture.
Make a sponge.
Let it rise overnight.
Knead and shape
Stiffen the sponge with flour.
Knead for about 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough to 1 inch thick.
Place in pans.
Top and bake
Melt butter.
Thicken with flour.
Spread on the cakes.
Bake until golden.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar before serving.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Liquid that dissolves the sugar and carries the yeast into the dough.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the dough and a rich flavor to the topping.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the cakes.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sponge overnight so the dough rises and becomes airy.
- Flour
- Builds the structure of the dough so it can be kneaded and shaped.
The step that matters
Let it rise overnight. The yeast needs time to ferment the sponge; a short rise leaves the dough dense, while the gas produced by fermentation gives the cakes their lightness.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Blueberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon. 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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