Name: Bread and Raisin Cake
Ingredients: 1 quart white flour; 1 pint water (slightly less than 1 pint); ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ½ teacup sugar (or more to taste); ½ teacup butter (softened, not melted); ½ nutmeg (grated) or a pinch of cinnamon or allspice; 1 teacup stoneless raisins or dried currants or chopped dried apples; ⅓ cake of Fleischmann’s yeast

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 ↓

Bread and Raisin Cake

Ingredients

1 quart white flour
1 pint water (slightly less than 1 pint)
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
½ teacup sugar (or more to taste)
½ teacup butter (softened, not melted)
½ nutmeg (grated) or a pinch of cinnamon or allspice
1 teacup stoneless raisins or dried currants or chopped dried apples
⅓ cake of Fleischmann’s yeast

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 batter

In a bowl, mix the flour, water, salt, sugar, and softened butter until combined.
Grate in the nutmeg or add cinnamon or allspice, then stir in the raisins or dried fruit.
Dissolve the yeast in warm water and add it to the mixture, stirring until you have a stiff batter.

Rise and bake

Let the batter rise for about 3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake the cake for about 3 hours.

Finish the cake

For a tender cake, after baking, place it on the upper shelf of the oven with a pan of warm water underneath and lower the flame to the lowest point, keeping it in the oven for several hours.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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

White flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
Yeast: Produces gas that makes the batter rise and lightens the crumb.
Butter: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches the flavor.
Sugar: Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
Raisins: Add sweetness, moisture, and chewy pockets throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Stiffening the batter with yeast. Yeast must be dissolved in warm water so it activates evenly; if the liquid is too hot it can kill the yeast, and an uneven mix leaves dense or patchy texture. The batter should be stiff but fully combined before it rises.

Swap the nutmeg

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegthe original
Jalapenofits less well
Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, 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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Bread and Raisin Cake