Why it works: Almond and flour 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 ↓
Bourbon Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Beat the yolks of 10 eggs and the whites of 5 eggs separately until well combined.
Grate and sift 1 pound of loaf sugar and the peel of 2 bitter oranges.
Blanch and pound ½ pound of sweet almonds with a little rose water.
Make the batter
Whisk all these ingredients together for 30 minutes.
Mix in ½ pound of dried and sifted flour.
Pour the mixture into a hoop about 3 inches deep.
Bake and finish
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Ice the top and sides of the cake immediately after removing it from the frame.
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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Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,465 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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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).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Egg and flour 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
- Egg yolks
- Provide richness, moisture and structure once whisked into the batter.
- Egg whites
- Whisked air and set during baking to give the cake lift and a light crumb.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and hold moisture.
- Sweet almonds
- Add fat, body and a moist, tender crumb to the cake.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
The step that matters
Whisking the batter for 30 minutes. Long whisking traps air in the eggs, which gives the cake its lift. Under-whisking leaves a dense cake, while the batter must be folded gently once the flour goes in so that the trapped air is not lost.
Swap the bitter orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, almond, flour, rose):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Bitter orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, almond, flour, 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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