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Dessert

Neapolitan Wafers

A thin, crisp wafer made from flour, sugar, eggs, butter, olive oil, and spices, cooked on a heated iron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Neapolitan Wafers

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add the eggs (yolks and whites) to the mixture.

  3. Melt the butter in water and mix the olive oil into the melted butter.

  4. Add the melted butter and olive oil to the flour mixture.

  5. Stir in the essences of cinnamon and cloves.

Cook and shape

  1. Heat an iron on a charcoal fire.

  2. Rub the iron with butter or pork rind.

  3. Pour a spoonful of batter into the iron.

  4. Ensure the batter spreads evenly.

  5. Close the iron.

  6. Cook until golden brown on both sides.

  7. Carefully remove the wafer.

  8. Shape the wafer on a piece of round wood.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Olive + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Olive + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,501 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the batter so the wafer holds its shape.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the wafer sets.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, helping the wafer brown and stay tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the wafer and helps it brown to a golden colour.
Olive oil
Adds fat that keeps the wafer tender and moist.

The step that matters

Cook until golden brown on both sides. The iron must be hot and the batter spread thinly so the wafer sets quickly. Sugar browns during cooking, so too much heat or too long in the iron can scorch the wafer before it is pliable enough to shape.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, olive, egg, cinnamon. 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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