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 ↓
Minnehaha Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter until smooth.
Add the egg whites (or whole eggs) and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine baking powder and flour, then add to the mixture alternately with the sweet milk.
Divide the batter into three layers and bake until golden.
Make the filling
For the filling, boil 1 cup of sugar with a little water until it reaches a brittle stage.
Quickly stir the hot syrup into the well-beaten egg whites.
Fold in the chopped raisins and spread between the cake layers.
Finish
Top the cake with plain icing.
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to add tenderness and a fine, even crumb.
- Egg whites
- Provide structure and lift, setting the crumb as the cake bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the layers rise and stay light.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure that holds the layers together.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while keeping it moist.
The step that matters
Stir the hot syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be at the brittle stage and added quickly, or it can cool or set unevenly and the whites may deflate, leaving the filling dense rather than light.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, flour, milk):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour, milk. 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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