Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
A Dish of Snow
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Grate the white part of the cocoa-nut and pile it in the middle.
Add ten eggs to two bowls of cottage cheese.
Add half a pint of cream, mace, cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, and a little brandy.
Blanch a pound of sweet almonds and a few bitter almonds.
Pound them in a mortar with a little rose-water.
Add ten eggs, beaten very lightly, and sugar.
Add a glass of brandy, some lemon peel, and bake in puff pastry.
Bake and preserve the peel
Bake in puff pastry.
Take out all the inside of lemon peel and lay them in salt and water for two days.
Wash them well, put them in fresh water, and let them boil till tender.
Take them up, throw off the water, and make a syrup with half their weight of sugar.
Put the syrup in the peel for twenty minutes.
Take them up, and when the syrup is thick, pour over the peel.
Put them in jars and cover tightly.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
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
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Cottage Cheese | 1/2 cup (113g) 2% | 98 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Nutmeg | 1 tsp ground (2.2g) | 12 |
| Almond | 1 almond (1.2g) | 7 |
| Cinnamon | 1 tsp ground (2.6g) | 6 |
| Mace | not in our table | 0 |
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.
-
Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,115 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the filling and set it into a firm custard when baked.
- Cottage cheese
- Forms the body of the filling, giving it a soft, moist, curd-based texture.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture, making the filling smoother and more tender.
- Sweet almonds
- Pounded into the filling, they add nutty flavour and a fine, moist texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and the syrup, and helps preserve the lemon peel.
The step that matters
Boil the lemon peel until tender. Peel left in salt water must be washed and boiled in fresh water until soft, otherwise the bitterness and saltiness remain and the syrup cannot penetrate evenly.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, almond, cottage cheese, egg, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg):
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Clovefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, almond, cottage cheese, egg, sugar, cinnamon, 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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