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Dessert

Genoese Pastry

A sweet pastry made from eggs, sugar, butter, and flour, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Genoese Pastry

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, warm the eggs and sugar mixture until nicely warmed, then whip until stiff froth forms.

  2. Melt the butter without heating it, then gradually add it to the egg and sugar mixture along with the flour, alternating between the two.

  3. Stir gently; do not beat the mixture while adding the butter and flour.

  4. Pour the batter into a mold lined with oiled paper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until golden.

  2. Once cooled, you can ice it or use it to make sandwiches, tartlets, or diamonds.

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.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour 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 into a foam that traps air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Helps stabilise the whipped egg foam and adds sweetness and browning during baking.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
All-purpose flour
Provides the protein and starch that set the batter's structure as it bakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the butter and flour gently. The whipped egg foam holds the air that makes the pastry rise. Beating after the flour and butter are added knocks out that air and develops gluten, leaving a denser, tougher result.

“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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