Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Wafers, Fruit, for Dessert
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the juice
Place the fruit in an earthen jar, cover it tightly, and set it in a pan of boiling water.
Keep the water boiling until the juice flows freely from the fruit.
Strain the juice through a jelly bag.
Make the paste
Mix each pint of filtered juice with 1 pound of powdered sugar and the egg white.
Beat the mixture until it forms a stiff paste.
Bake and store
Spread the paste in a thin layer on buttered paper.
Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) until it is dry enough to leave the paper.
Turn the wafers upside down and return them to the oven until completely dry.
Stamp the wafers into shapes and layer them between sheets of white paper in a tin box.
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.
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fruit juice
- Provides the flavour and the liquid that turns the sugar into a paste.
- Powdered white sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with the juice, forms the stiff paste that dries into wafers.
- Egg white
- Adds structure and binding so the paste holds its shape while drying.
The step that matters
Drying the wafers in the oven. A gentle oven dries the paste slowly without browning it. If the oven is too hot, the surface sets and colours before the inside dries, leaving the wafers soft or scorched.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.