Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓
Queen Cakes, or Drops
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Melt the butter in a bowl until creamy.
Add the powdered sugar and lemon raspings, stirring for 15 minutes with a whisk until light and white.
Break the eggs into a separate bowl, adding 3 or 4 at a time, stirring well after each addition and allowing a 5-minute interval.
Once all eggs are mixed in, stir in the washed and picked currants.
Sift in the flour and stir for 5 minutes.
Shape and bake
Shape the mixture into cakes the size of half a crown and place them on six sheets of paper.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they set in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender crumb, and carries flavour through the batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, when beaten with butter, traps air that helps the cakes rise.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter, add structure and richness, and help it rise and set.
- Currants
- Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and a chewy, fruity texture.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs gradually. Eggs are added a few at a time, with beating between additions, so the butter and sugar mixture can absorb them as a smooth emulsion. Adding them too quickly can break the batter, causing it to curdle and lose the air it needs to rise evenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg, lemon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, lemon. 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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