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Dessert

Orange Hearts

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Butter heart-shaped tins and place five sheets of paper underneath.

Make the batter

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

  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gently fold the light paste into the egg whites until well combined.

  4. Sift in the flour and stir lightly to incorporate.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into the tins and bake in a slow oven until set.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whisked to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts and lightens the cake.
Egg yolks
Enrich the batter and help it set into a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together once it sets.
Sweet almonds
Add tenderness, moisture and nutty flavour to the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and contributes to its soft texture and browning.

The step that matters

Folding the paste into the egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that makes the cake light. Folding gently keeps that air in, while vigorous stirring would deflate the foam and leave a dense cake.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, almond, lemon, 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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