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Dessert

Pecan Sticks

A baked cake made with pecan nuts, eggs, sugar, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pecan Sticks

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pecans

  1. Dip the pecan meats in hot water for 2-3 seconds, then drain.

  2. When cool enough to handle, brush the pecans with a stiff-bristled vegetable brush to remove the bitter skin.

  3. Chop the pecans and add them to the flour.

Make and bake the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs until very light, gradually adding the sugar and melted butter.

  2. Fold in the flour and chopped pecans.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) in buttered pans, using a small portion of batter for each section to ensure the cakes are thin.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Pecan meats
Provide the main nutty flavour and crunchy texture in the batter.
Eggs
Beaten until very light, they add structure and lift to the batter.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it brown as it bakes.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavour.
Sifted flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.

The step that matters

Spreading small portions of batter in buttered pans. Using only a small portion per section keeps the cakes thin, so they bake evenly and crisp rather than turning thick and cakey in the middle.

“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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