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Dessert

Railroad Cakes

Railroad Cakes are a sweet pastry with a butter, sugar, flour, egg yolk base topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓

Railroad Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA medium oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a medium oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the flour and egg yolks, mixing until well combined.

  3. Spread the mixture onto a thin sheet of sweet pastry dough.

Bake and top

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

  2. Prepare a meringue by whipping the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread the meringue on top, creating a netting pattern with strips.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour 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

Sugar
Sweetens the base and helps it brown during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender, rich texture.
Flour
Provides structure so the base holds its shape.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the base mixture.
Egg whites
Whipped into meringue to create a light, airy topping.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites must be whipped until stiff peaks form so they trap air and hold the meringue's shape. Underwhipped whites stay runny and spread, while overwhipped whites turn grainy and collapse.

“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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