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Dessert

Miss Belknap

A sweet pastry made from milk, wheat flour, eggs, butter, and corn starch, baked in heated pans and filled with a cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Wheat and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Miss Belknap

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine one pint of sweet milk, one pint of wheat flour, two eggs, a tablespoonful of melted butter, and a little salt.

  2. Beat the yolks and whites separately and thoroughly.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake in gem pans, which must be heated on top of the stove before using, and have the oven hot.

  2. Cut a slit in the side of the baked pastry and fill them with cream.

  3. Beat one egg and add two small spoonfuls of corn starch.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

784Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Wheatnot 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 Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church. 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. Wheat + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Wheat flour
Forms the main structure of the batter as its starches and proteins set during baking.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and the separately beaten whites help the batter rise.
Sweet milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and creates a tender, moist crumb.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Heating the gem pans before adding the batter. Batter poured into hot pans begins to set and rise right away, giving a lighter, more even texture. Cold pans let the batter spread and bake dense.

“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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