Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Drops, Wafers, Crimp Biscuits
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Rub the butter into the flour.
Make a well in the center and add the sugar, eggs, and oil.
Mix into a dough until smooth and clear.
Shape and poach
Roll out to ¼ inch thick and cut into oval or oak-leaf shapes.
Dock the centers and place on a tray in rows, covering with a damp cloth.
Boil water in a pot and drop the biscuits in one at a time, face up.
Once they rise to the top, turn each biscuit face up and let them cook for 2-3 minutes.
Use a skimmer to transfer them to a pail of cold water for about an hour.
Strain in a sieve and bake on buttered tins in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C).
Dry
After baking, place them in a drying stove for a few hours.
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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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour, it coats flour particles and gives the biscuits a tender, rich texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness to the biscuits.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the biscuits brown during baking.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the dough together.
- Rice flour
- Adds a light, crisp texture because it lacks much gluten.
The step that matters
Poaching and transferring to cold water. Poaching sets the outside of the dough so the biscuits hold their shape. Moving them to cold water promptly stops cooking, so the texture stays firm rather than gummy or overdone.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, rice, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, rice, flour. 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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