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 ↓
Dried Apple 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.
Prepare the apples
Soak the dried apples overnight and chop them.
Simmer the chopped apples in molasses for 1 hour.
Make the batter
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs and mix well.
Stir in the flour and baking soda.
Combine the apple mixture with the batter.
Fold in raisins, currants, and spices.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,918 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
- Dried apples
- Provide fruit flavor and moist, tender pieces throughout the cake.
- Molasses
- Adds dark color, deep sweetness, and moisture to the cake.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic molasses to help the cake rise and brown.
The step that matters
Simmering the apples in molasses. Simmering softens the dried apples so they become tender rather than tough or chewy in the finished cake. Cooking them in molasses also lets the fruit absorb flavor and moisture before it is folded into the batter.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, molasses, butter, sugar, egg, flour, raisin):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, molasses, butter, sugar, egg, flour, raisin. 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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