IllustrationWhy it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 89,462 recipes mention both. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: egg
Directions
Prepare
Cut up and wash a cocoa-nut, and grate as much of it as will weigh a pound.
Powder a pound of loaf sugar.
Beat fifteen eggs very light.
Make the batter
Gradually beat the sugar into the eggs.
Add the grated cocoa-nut by degrees.
Add a handful of sifted flour.
Stir the mixture very hard.
Bake
Bake in a large tin pan or in little tins; the oven should be rather quick.
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.
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Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Sugar + flourtop 10% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together89,462 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 89,462 recipes mention both: they likely 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 (in the method)
- Beaten light, they trap air and give the cake its structure as they set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, beaten with the eggs, helps make it light and tender.
- Grated cocoa-nut (in the method)
- Adds moisture, fat and coconut flavour to the cake.
- Sifted flour
- Provides the starch that sets with the eggs to give the cake its body.
The step that matters
Beating the eggs very light. Beaten eggs hold air that lifts the batter in the oven. Under-beaten eggs leave a dense cake, so the eggs should be whisked until pale and airy before the sugar is added.
“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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