Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Gateau Au Beurre, or Solilemne
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.
Make the sponge
Sift ¾ pound of flour and set aside ¼ pound.
In the center of the reserved flour, combine 1 teaspoon of yeast and a little lukewarm cream. Dilute and gradually add the flour. Work the mixture until soft.
Pour the mixture into a small saucepan and let it rise until doubled in size.
Make the dough
On a clean surface, place the remaining flour and add 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 ounce of sugar, 4 egg yolks, 5 ounces of butter, and ½ cup of lukewarm cream. Mix until the dough is soft. Beat the dough with your hand for a few minutes.
Add the risen sponge to the mixture. Work the dough until soft and elastic.
Shape, bake and serve
Transfer the dough to a buttered 6-inch round mold. Let the dough rise until doubled in size.
Lightly egg wash the top.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.
Once baked, cut the cake horizontally. Turn the top upside down to resemble a bee-hive.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that the dough builds around as it is worked and risen.
- Active dry yeast
- Produces gas during rising, leavening the dough so it becomes light and doubles in size.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, tenderizing the crumb and helping the dough bind.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, softening the crumb.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
The step that matters
Let the sponge and dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas; underproofed dough stays dense, while the rise sets the cake's light crumb. Lukewarm liquids keep the yeast active without killing it.
“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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