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Dessert

Cream Crackers

A light, sweet cracker made with flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, salt, and egg whites, baked until pale.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cream Crackers

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl.

  2. Add the butter and beaten egg whites to the bowl.

  3. Stir in the salt and mix until stiff.

  4. Knead the dough rapidly.

  5. Roll the dough out.

  6. Cut into squares.

Boil and bake

  1. Drop the squares into a kettle of boiling water for 5 minutes. Skim them out and place in a colander to drain.

  2. Transfer to a greased baking tin.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until pale, avoiding browning.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the dough once mixed and kneaded.
Egg whites
Add structure and binding to the dough, helping it hold its shape.
Butter
Adds fat, tenderness and richness to the crackers.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the crackers rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Bake until pale, avoiding browning. Baking at 400°F (200°C) browns quickly because sugar and proteins caramelise and brown at high heat. Pulling the crackers while still pale keeps them light in colour and prevents bitterness.

“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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