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Ginger Wafers, No. 393

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ginger Wafers, No. 393

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pan, combine flour, sugar, salt, orange-flower water, eggs, and milk. Mix vigorously with a wooden spoon.

  2. Add the melted butter and continue mixing for another 10 minutes.

  3. Heat the wafer irons over a charcoal stove, turning them frequently for even heating.

  4. Rub the inside of the hot irons with a brush dipped in clarified butter.

  5. Pour a tablespoon of butter into the bottom of the irons, close them, and bake the wafers on both sides until light fawn colored.

  6. Immediately roll the baked wafers around a stick about 5 inches long and 1 inch in diameter.

  7. Use the first wafer to test the heat of the irons; adjust as necessary for subsequent wafers.

  8. Store the wafers in a closed tin box at a warm temperature.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, egg, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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