Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cream Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs until very light.
Gradually stir the eggs into the cream.
Add enough sifted flour to make a thick batter.
Mix in the salt.
Dissolve the pearl-ash in enough vinegar to cover it, then stir it in last.
Bake and serve
Bake the mixture in muffin rings.
Serve the cakes hot, pull them open, and butter them.
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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Cream + vinegartop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,064 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,652 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Beaten eggs add structure and lift to the batter as they set in the oven.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture, giving the cakes a tender crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the thick batter together while it bakes.
- Pearl-ash
- Dissolved in vinegar, it reacts to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
The step that matters
Stir in the dissolved pearl-ash last. The leavening reacts as soon as it meets the acid, so it should be folded in just before baking to keep the gas from escaping before the batter sets.
“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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