Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Naples Biscuits
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Sift the flour and powdered sugar together three times.
Beat the eggs well and add them to the flour and sugar mixture.
Stir in the rose-water.
Bake
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Bake the mixture in the hot oven until golden.
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 + 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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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,584 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + rosetop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,643 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Fine flour
- Provides the structure that holds the biscuits together as they set.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and a fine, delicate crumb, and helps the biscuits brown.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and trap air, giving lift and a light, tender texture.
- Rose-water
- Adds a floral aroma that flavours the biscuits.
The step that matters
Bake until golden. The biscuits set and brown in the hot oven. Removing them too early leaves the centre wet, while overbaking dries them out and darkens the sugar too much.
“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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