Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Genoese Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Melt the butter by letting it stand near the fire.
In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, and lemon rind.
Make a paste with the brandy, beaten eggs, and melted butter.
Beat the mixture for 10 minutes with a wooden spoon.
Pour the mixture into a well-buttered pie dish.
Bake and finish
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes.
Check if done by inserting a skewer; it should come out dry.
Remove from the oven and top with sugar and blanched almonds.
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 + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the batter set into a rich crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps brown the surface as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during baking to give the cake its structure.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and flavour and moistens the batter as a liquid.
The step that matters
Beating the mixture for 10 minutes. Beating works air into the batter and develops the structure of the cake. Beating too little leaves a dense cake, while the batter should be mixed evenly before it goes into the pan.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, brandy, egg, almond):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, brandy, egg, almond. 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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