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Dessert

Orange Hearts

A sweet cake made with sugar, egg yolks, preserved orange peel, almonds, lemon zest, and flour, baked in heart-shaped tins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Hearts

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter heart-shaped tins.

  3. Place six sheets of paper under each tin.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix egg yolks, powdered sugar, preserved orange peel, finely pounded almonds with rose water, and lemon raspings until it forms a light paste.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gently fold the whisked egg whites into the paste.

  4. Sift the flour and fold it into the mixture lightly.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into the prepared tins.

  2. Bake until set, about 20-25 minutes.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Orange + rosetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together876 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Add richness and moisture, and help the batter set as it bakes.
Egg whites
Whisked to stiff peaks, they trap air that lightens the cake's structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together once baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the crumb.
Preserved orange peel
Adds concentrated orange flavour and aroma throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Gently fold the whisked egg whites into the paste. Egg whites hold air only while whisked. Heavy stirring knocks that air out, so the cake rises less and turns dense. Fold gently so the batter stays light.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, almond, lemon, flour, rose, butter):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangethe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, almond, lemon, flour, rose, butter. 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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