Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Baba a LA Polonaise
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.
Clean the baba mold and rub it with a soft cloth.
Cream the clarified butter and thoroughly butter the mold.
When the yeast bubbles, soften the remaining butter.
In a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour.
Crack and smell each egg, then add them to the flour mixture three at a time, beating well after each addition.
Continue beating the batter for five minutes.
Gently fold the yeast mixture into the batter.
Coat the inside of the mold with a thin layer of batter.
Lightly mix in the fruit and peel, then pour the mixture into the mold.
Butter a strip of paper and tie it around the mold.
Let the mold rise in a warm place until it triples in size.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for nearly an hour.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
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