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Dessert

Lemon Tea Cakes

A lemon-flavored cake made with lard, flour, sugar, and Edmonds’ egg powder, baked in a brisk oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. J. Edmonds Ltd. · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Tea Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Rub lard and butter into 1½ breakfast cups of flour.

  2. Add 6 ozs. moist sugar, grated rind of one lemon, a little of the juice, and a heaped teaspoonful of Edmonds' egg powder.

  3. Mix into a moderate paste with 2 well beaten eggs.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide into cakes; place on a greased oven shelf.

  2. Bake in a brisk oven for 20 minutes.

Make the second batch

  1. Rub butter into flour.

  2. Add all dry ingredients.

  3. Mix all together to a paste with milk.

  4. Turn out on board, form into a roll, and cut into equal parts.

  5. Put on a cold greased and floured tray.

  6. Bake in a quick oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

660Calories
20 gProtein
19 gFat
99 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
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 T. J. Edmonds Ltd.. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Provides the main structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Lard
Coats flour particles to shorten the crumb, giving a tender, crumbly texture.
Eggs
Bind the paste and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the surface brown during baking.
Lemon
Its rind adds fragrant aroma and its juice adds a bright acidity.

The step that matters

Bake in a brisk oven. A hot oven sets the outside of the cakes quickly, so they hold their shape and brown. If the oven is too cool, the fat softens and spreads before the structure sets.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Blueberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour. 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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