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Dessert

Maids of Honor

Small patty-pan cakes of puff paste filled with a mixture of curd, almonds, butter, sugar, lemon and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Maids of Honor

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curd

  1. Cut a piece of rennet about four inches square the night before making the cakes.

  2. Wash off the salt from the rennet carefully and wipe it dry.

  3. Soak the rennet in a cup of warm water.

  4. Early in the morning, stir the rennet water into a quart of milk.

  5. Set the milk in a warm place until it becomes firm.

  6. Put the curd on ice.

  7. When quite cold, put the curd into a sieve and drain it dry.

  8. Crumble the curd fine in your hands.

Make the filling

  1. Blanch and pound two ounces of sweet almonds and two ounces of bitter almonds in a mortar to a smooth paste, mixing in rose water as you proceed to prevent oiling.

  2. Grate the yellow rind of three lemons upon lumps of loaf sugar.

  3. Squeeze the juice of the lemons over the sugar and let it dissolve.

  4. Mix the crumbled curd in a deep pan with three-quarters of a pound of butter cut up and three-quarters of a pound of powdered sugar.

  5. Stir the curd, butter and sugar together until very light, adding a wine-glass of brandy, the almonds and the lemon, and grate in a small nutmeg.

  6. Beat the yolks of eight eggs well together, then add them gradually to the other ingredients.

  7. Finish with a tablespoonful of farina and beat the whole thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Line small patty pans with puff paste.

  2. Fill the pans with the mixture and sift powdered sugar over each cake.

  3. Put in a hot oven and bake thoroughly.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

409Calories
15 gProtein
26 gFat
30 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Waternot 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 Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Rennet curdles it into the soft curd that forms the body of the filling.
Rennet
Its enzymes set the warm milk into a firm curd.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the filling and help bind it as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, light texture when beaten.
Lemons
Juice and rind add acidity and bright aroma to the filling.
Almonds
Pounded into a paste, they add nutty flavour and body to the filling.

The step that matters

Drain the curd dry. Any whey left in the curd adds excess liquid, which can make the filling watery and stop it from setting smoothly in the pastry.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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