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Biscuit Berclion

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and hazelnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Biscuit Berclion

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar over low heat until combined.

  2. Gradually add the cornstarch, ground hazelnuts, salt, and then the butter.

  3. Finally, stir in the kirsch.

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.

  1. Vanilla + hazelnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Swap the hazelnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Hazelnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, sugar, butter, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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