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Dessert

Sponge Drops

A light, sweet cake made from eggs, sugar, flour, baking soda and cream of tartar, baked in small spoonfuls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Sponge Drops

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs and sugar until very light.

  2. Sift the cream of tartar and baking soda with the flour three times.

Make the batter

  1. Combine all ingredients and beat until light.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture 3 inches apart on a baking sheet.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

  2. Serve with ice cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Eggs
Trap air when beaten, giving the drops structure and lift as they set.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the beaten eggs hold their air for a tender crumb.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that stabilizes the beaten eggs and reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas, helping the drops rise.
Flour
Provides the starch and protein that set into the drops' structure as they bake.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs and sugar until very light. Beating incorporates air into the eggs, which is the main source of lift in this batter. Underbeating leaves the drops dense and flat, so the foam should look pale and thick before the flour 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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