Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Wafer Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs until very light.
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the sugar and butter.
Stir in enough flour to create a stiff batter.
Season the batter with lemon extract and nutmeg.
Cook and shape
Heat and grease the wafer irons.
Place 2 large spoonfuls of batter in the irons and cook until done.
Turn the wafers as you remove them from the irons.
Use a smooth stick to roll the wafers.
Fill and serve
Fill the hollow wafers with whipped cream and add preserved strawberries at each end.
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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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Provide structure and lightness when beaten, helping the batter rise and hold together.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the wafers brown and crisp as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the baked wafer.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the stiff batter its body and sets the wafer shape.
- Whipped cream
- Adds moisture and a light, creamy contrast to the crisp wafer.
The step that matters
Cook until done, then turn and roll while warm. Wafers set and crisp as they cook, but they become brittle as they cool. Turning and rolling them promptly, while still pliable, prevents cracking and gives the hollow shape needed for filling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, flour, nutmeg, cream):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, nutmeg, cream. 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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