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Toast, Dry

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and coconut work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 259 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Toast, Dry

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

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

  2. Beat the eggs and sugar together until thick and smooth.

  3. Gently stir in the flour until just combined.

  4. Butter 6 or 7 dariol moulds and coat them thickly with castor sugar.

  5. Fill the moulds three-quarters full with the mixture.

  6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes.

  7. Once cooked, baste with sweetened rum and sprinkle lightly with coconut.

  8. Serve cold.

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. Rum + coconuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together259 recipes

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

  2. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 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. Butter + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Bananafits about as well
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, butter, rum. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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