Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Miss Darlington
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Combine mashed potatoes, milk, butter or lard, sugar, baking soda, salt, and yeast cake.
Set the dough at 10 A.M. for use at night.
Remix the dough at 3 P.M.
Roll the dough out in a pan.
Let the dough rise.
Bake for 20 minutes just before serving.
Make the leaven
Dissolve the yeast cake in ¼ cup warm water.
Add enough flour to make a soft ball of paste, well mixed.
Drop the ball into a pan of warm water, not hot.
Cover and set in a warm place for about 1 hour to rise.
Mix and rest the dough
Put the remaining flour in a bowl, make a well in the center, and add butter, salt, sugar, and 4 eggs.
Work the mixture with hand, gradually adding flour and 2 more eggs, one at a time.
Work until the dough loses all stickiness.
When the leaven is light, lift it out of the water with a skimmer and place it with the dough.
Work well together.
Add the last egg.
Beat with hand for a long time, the longer the better, to make it firmer.
Put the paste in a bowl.
Let it rise for four or five hours.
Beat down again and put it on ice for 12 or 24 hours.
Handle quickly when taken from ice.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
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 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Cake | 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.
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, firming the dough as they are worked in.
- Yeast cake
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches the dough.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning.
- Mashed potatoes (in the method)
- Add moisture and starch that help the dough stay soft.
The step that matters
Beat the dough by hand for a long time. Long beating develops gluten, which gives the dough strength to trap gas and firm up. Stopping early leaves it weak and slack, so it rises poorly and bakes with a coarse texture.
“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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