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Dessert

French Dishes

A French yeast cake with flour, butter, eggs, sugar, lemon peel, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Caron, Pierre, fl. 1886-1899 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

French Dishes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Put three ounces of flour in a bowl, with half a cake of yeast, adding about two sherry‑glasses of lukewarm milk, so as to form a soft paste.

  2. When the paste has risen to double its height, add twelve ounces of flour, seven ounces of butter (a little warm), a pinch of salt, an ounce of sugar, and seven eggs.

  3. Beat the mixture well with a wooden spoon, adding four eggs one by one while beating.

  4. When the mixture no longer sticks to the bowl, it is beaten enough.

  5. Add half an ounce of citron cut into very small pieces.

Rise and bake

  1. Place the mixture in a warm place for about two hours to rise.

  2. Butter a tin mold and sprinkle it with a few chopped almonds.

  3. Fill the mold one half with the mixture and let it rise half as much again.

  4. Send it to a moderate oven.

  5. Slip the point of a knife into the cake, and if it comes out dry, it is sufficiently done.

  6. Turn it out of the mold.

Make the syrup

  1. Put four ounces of sugar with a glass of water in a saucepan on the fire, boil for five minutes, add a tablespoonful of

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 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
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Caron, Pierre, fl. 1886-1899. 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. Butter + milktop 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. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the soft paste and the crumb structure that holds the risen cake.
Yeast (in the method)
Produces gas that makes the paste rise before and during baking.
Eggs
Add structure, richness and lift to the batter as they are beaten in.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavour in the crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crumb brown lightly in the oven.
Milk
Moistens the flour and activates the yeast to form the starter paste.

The step that matters

Beating the mixture until it no longer sticks to the bowl. Vigorous beating develops gluten and evenly mixes the eggs into the dough, giving a strong, airy structure that rises well and holds its shape.

“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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