Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Lady Fingers
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Beat the whites of four eggs to a stiff froth.
Beat the yolks of four eggs with a pound of sugar.
Mix with two or three spoonfuls of flour.
Season with rose water or lemon.
Put three teaspoonsful of cream of tartar into three pints of flour and sift it.
Beat half a pound of butter to a cream with two large cups full of sugar.
Add five eggs, well beaten.
Add a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a small quantity of milk.
Add some caraway seed.
Shape and bake
Roll very thin.
Bake on buttered paper.
Bake on tins.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whites whipped to a stiff froth and yolks beaten with sugar give lightness and structure to the dough.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and, creamed with butter, helps it hold air for a light texture.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough once its proteins set in the oven.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter and works with the soda to help it rise and stay tender.
- Soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas, lifting the dough as it bakes.
The step that matters
Roll very thin. Thin dough bakes quickly and dries into crisp, delicate biscuits; thick dough stays soft and cakey in the middle, and the leavening needs an even layer to rise evenly.
“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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