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Dessert

Pecan Slices

A baked pecan slice cookie made with sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and pecans are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,047 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Pecan Slices

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the sugar and eggs until very light.

  2. Add the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon and mix well.

  3. Spread the mixture in pans to a height of ½ inch.

Bake and cut

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for almost an hour.

  2. Cut while hot and remove from the pan.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Cinnamon + pecanstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Beaten with sugar to trap air, giving the slices structure and a light texture.
Light-brown sugar
Adds moisture, sweetness and a soft, chewy texture as it bakes.
Flour
Provides the starch and protein that set the batter into firm slices.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping it rise and turn lighter as it bakes.
Whole pecans
Add nutty flavor and a crunchy contrast to the soft, chewy bars.

The step that matters

Cut while hot and remove from the pan. The bars are still soft while warm, so cutting them before they cool and firm up helps keep the slices clean and whole.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Milletfits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour, cinnamon. 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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