Why it works: Currant and rose work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 494 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Queen Cakes
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.
Prepare the batter
Mix the dried flour, sifted sugar, and washed currants in a bowl.
Wash the butter in rose-water and beat it well.
Add the beaten egg yolks and whites to the butter and mix thoroughly.
Gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the butter mixture.
Beat the mixture for one hour.
Bake
Butter small tins, tea-cups, or saucers.
Fill them halfway with the batter.
Sprinkle a little fine sugar over the batter.
Place the tins in the oven.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) 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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Currant + rosetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together494 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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
- Yolks and whites add structure and lift, setting the cake as it bakes.
- Butter
- Beaten well, it traps air and gives the cake its rich, tender crumb.
- Dried flour
- Its starch sets during baking, giving the cakes their body and structure.
- Sifted sugar
- Sweetens the cakes and helps browning to a golden crust in the oven.
- Washed currants
- Add fruity sweetness and pockets of chewy texture throughout the cakes.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture for one hour. Long beating incorporates air into the butter, eggs and sugar, which provides the rise and light texture. Under-beating leaves dense cakes, while the dry ingredients should be folded in gently once the batter is aerated.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, rose, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, rose, egg. 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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