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Dessert

Torta Di Pasta Margherita

A sweet cake made with eggs, sugar, semolina and potato flour, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Semolina and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 325 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Torta Di Pasta Margherita

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the sugar with the whole eggs and egg yolks.

  2. Warm the mixture while stirring vigorously until well combined.

  3. Remove from heat and continue beating until the mixture is almost cool.

  4. Sift together the flours and gradually add them to the mixture.

  5. Finally, add the melted butter and mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into round or square cake pans.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Semolina + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together325 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Sugar and vanilla 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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whole eggs and yolks build structure and richness as they set during baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps hold moisture and a tender crumb.
Semolina flour
Adds a firm, slightly granular structure to the batter.
Potato flour
Contributes a light, tender texture because it is starchy and low in gluten.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, moisture and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Remove from heat and continue beating until the mixture is almost cool. Eggs can scramble or curdle if the mixture stays hot, and cooling it before adding flour keeps the batter smooth and light for an even bake.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, semolina, flour, butter, vanilla. 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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