Why it works: Rose and currant work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 494 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Queen Cake
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease small baking pans and dust them with granulated sugar.
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream the softened butter with the rose water.
Add the sifted flour and granulated sugar, mixing well.
Incorporate the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
Fold in the currants gently.
Bake
Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
Bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Rose + curranttop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together494 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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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).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps browning while adding tenderness to the crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure, richness and moisture, and help the batter rise as they set.
- Currants
- Add small bursts of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Incorporate the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually lets each one emulsify fully into the butter mixture. Adding them too fast can cause curdling, which weakens the batter's ability to hold air and rise evenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, egg, rose):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, 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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