Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Spanish Bread
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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the 21 yolks of eggs with the sugar and a small amount of rasped lemon or orange peel.
Whisk the 14 egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.
Sift the flour and starch over the mixture and fold until well combined.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into tins or paper cases, filling them two inches deep.
Bake until firm to the touch, then remove from the molds.
Cut into square pieces and ice with chocolate or icing of your choice.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + orangetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,821 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and structure to the batter while providing moisture and a tender crumb.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lightens the batter and helps it rise.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the yolks while beating.
- Flour
- Provides structure that sets the crumb as the batter bakes.
- Starch
- Softens the crumb, giving a lighter, more tender texture than flour alone.
The step that matters
Folding the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture. Whites are full of trapped air, and overmixing or stirring vigorously deflates them, leading to a dense cake. Fold gently in large strokes so the batter stays airy.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour. 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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