Name: Punched Calces
Ingredients: 1 pound sifted sugar; 1 pound butter; 3 pounds dry sifted flour; 1 ounce anise or caraway seeds; ½ ounce any spice in fine powder; 2 ounces citron, minced; 2 ounces almonds, minced; 1 cup boiling milk

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Punched Calces

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

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

Rub the sugar and butter together until creamy.
Mix in the flour and seeds or spices.
Add the minced citron and almonds.
Pour in the boiling milk and work the mixture well.

Shape and bake

Roll the dough thin and cut it into cakes.
Punch the cakes and bake them on oven leaves.
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

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.

Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Anise + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together55 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + anisetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together270 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter: Creams with the sugar to give the dough richness and a tender, short crumb.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the dough once it is worked with the liquid.
Sugar: Creams with the butter and adds sweetness to the dough.
Boiling milk: Adds moisture and helps the dough come together and soften the flour starch.

Swap the anise

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Anisethe original
Capersfits about as well

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