Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lady Fingers
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, flavoring, and salt.
Prepare the ladyfinger pans by greasing them with butter.
Spoon the mixture into the pans.
Sprinkle the tops with powdered sugar.
Bake
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until lightly golden.
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.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Powdered sugar
- Provides sweetness and a fine texture, and browns lightly on the surface in the oven.
- Lemon or vanilla flavoring
- Adds aroma and a distinct flavour to the sweet mixture.
The step that matters
Bake until lightly golden. Sugar browns quickly once heated, so the bake can move from pale to over-browned within a few minutes. Checking early in the 10 to 15 minute window helps keep the tops light and prevents bitterness from scorched sugar.
“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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