Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Daphne's Jumbles
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 the dough
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg yolks, egg whites, nutmeg, and rose water; mix well.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until a dough forms.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough thick and cut into desired shapes.
Place on baking tins and dust with powdered sugar.
Bake in the preheated oven 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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Nutmeg + rosetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
- Unsalted butter
- Creamed with sugar to create tenderness and a rich, crumbly texture.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, helping the dough bind and feel tender.
- Rose water
- Adds a floral aroma that defines the flavor of this dish.
The step that matters
Mixing in the flour. Adding flour gradually and mixing only until a dough forms keeps the gluten from developing too much, which would make the shortbread tough instead of tender and crumbly.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg, rose):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Capersfits less well
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, rose. 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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