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Dessert

Matilda Cerveny

Raised yeast cakes made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, lemon rind, mace, and salt, filled with stewed fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Matilda Cerveny

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Dissolve two cakes of Fleisch-man's yeast in one cup of lukewarm milk and one tablespoon of granulated sugar, then set in a warm place to rise.

  2. Cream one-fourth pound of clarified butter, one-fourth pound fresh butter, three tablespoons of powdered sugar, grated rind of one-half lemon, one-half teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of mace.

  3. Add six yolks well beaten, then the raised yeast, one pound and one-half cup of flour, and the beaten whites of four eggs. Beat until batter falls from spoon.

  4. Set aside to rise until light.

Shape and fill

  1. Turn out on a floured board, pat out one-half inch thick, and cut with a small biscuit cutter.

  2. Place on buttered tins about one inch apart. Brush with melted butter.

  3. Press down the center of each with fingers to raise a ridge around the edge, then fill with stewed fruit.

Bake

  1. When well risen, bake in a hot oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
28 gProtein
26 gFat
124 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Cakenot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks and whites add richness, structure and lift to the soft dough.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor to the dough.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, raising the dough so it becomes light.
Flour (in the method)
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its body and structure.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and feeds the yeast, adding moisture and softness.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to build gas in the dough; rising too little leaves the tarts dense, while the batter must be well beaten first so the gluten and gas structure can develop.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, lemon, egg. 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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