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Magdala Biscuits

A savory biscuit made with flour, parmesan, cream, butter, and seasonings, topped with a cream mixture and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Magdala Biscuits

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 the biscuits

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

  2. Mix the flour, cheese, and seasonings in a bowl.

  3. Rub in the butter until well combined.

  4. Add the egg yolk and cream, mixing to form a stiff paste.

  5. Roll out the dough thinly and cut into biscuits, about 1½ and 2 inches in diameter.

  6. Place the biscuits on a greased baking sheet and bake until pale brown.

  7. Let the biscuits cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Whisk the cream until stiff, then mix in the grated parmesan, salt, and a few drops of tarragon vinegar.

  2. Using a piping bag, pipe the cream onto the larger biscuits, top with a smaller biscuit, add more cream, and sprinkle with coralline pepper and chopped parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the biscuits together.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to make the biscuits short and tender.
Egg yolk
Binds the dough and adds richness to the biscuits.
Parmesan
Adds savoury, salty flavour and browning to the biscuits and cream filling.
Cream
Binds the dough and, whipped, forms the rich filling.

The step that matters

Baking the biscuits to pale brown. Biscuits baked too long or at too high heat darken and turn dry and bitter, while underbaked dough stays pasty. Pale brown means the starches and proteins have set without over-browning.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, cream, butter, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, cream, butter, pepper. 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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