Why it works: Lemon and anise share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 91 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Boston Cream Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
Beat the yolks of the eggs until light and thick.
Beat the whites until dry, then combine the yolks and whites.
Gradually add the sifted sugar and grated lemon rind while beating continuously.
Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Knead the dough and cover it tightly.
Chill the dough for 2 to 3 hours.
Shape and rest
Roll out a small piece to ⅛ inch thick.
Dust the dough lightly with flour.
Press a wooden springerle mold onto it to create impressions.
Cut out squares with a knife.
Place the squares on a floured board to rest overnight.
In the morning, transfer the squares to buttered baking tins sprinkled with anise seed.
Bake
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until they are a light straw color.
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 + anisetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together91 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Flour + anisetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together270 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Whipped yolks and whites provide the structure and lift that give the dough its light texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps tenderize it as it is beaten in.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cut shapes once the dough is set.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the dough to help it rise and stay light.
- Lemon rind
- Adds aromatic citrus oils that flavour the dough.
The step that matters
Bake slowly until only a light straw color. A slow oven at 300°F dries and sets the squares gradually without browning them. Baking too hot or too long darkens the surface and can make the cookies hard rather than tender.
Swap the anise
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, sugar, flour, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Anisethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, sugar, flour, butter. 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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