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Dessert

Dessert Deshbs

A baked cake with a thick flour and milk filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Dessert Deshbs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the shells

  1. In a pot, combine boiling water and lard until melted.

  2. Stir in flour while boiling until a thick paste forms.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  4. Add eggs and salt, mixing thoroughly.

  5. Drop spoonfuls onto buttered baking sheets, spacing them apart.

  6. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, mix a smooth paste of flour with some cold milk.

  2. Combine with boiling milk in a kettle until thickened.

  3. Add beaten eggs and sugar, stirring until creamy.

  4. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract; let cool before using.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Forms the thick paste for the shells and thickens the filling.
Eggs
Add structure and richness to the shell dough and body to the custard filling.
Lard
Adds fat and tenderness to the shell paste.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the filling, which thickens as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the creamy filling.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into boiling water. Flour must be stirred in while the liquid is boiling so the starch gelatinizes into a thick paste. Adding it off the heat leaves lumps and a weak dough that will not puff properly.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, butter, milk, sugar):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, butter, milk, sugar. 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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