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Saffron Cakes

Saffron cakes are small cakes made with flour, butter, cream, saffron, egg whites, yolks, yeast, salt, coriander, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Saffron and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 381 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Saffron Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Heat the cream or milk and add the butter.

  2. Mix in a considerable quantity of sugar and saffron to taste.

  3. In a bowl, combine the egg whites, egg yolks, and yeast.

  4. When the milk mixture is nearly cold, add it to the eggs along with salt and coriander seeds.

  5. Knead the mixture well and form it into small cakes.

Bake

  1. Bake the cakes in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Saffron + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + saffrontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together447 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Provides the main structure that holds the cakes together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving a tender crumb.
Egg whites
Add structure and lift to the dough as they set in the oven.
Egg yolks
Add richness, moisture and tenderness to the cakes.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become airy.

The step that matters

When the milk mixture is nearly cold, add it to the eggs. If the warm milk and butter mixture is added while hot, it can scramble the eggs or kill the yeast. Letting it cool to nearly cold protects the eggs and keeps the yeast alive so the dough can rise.

Swap the coriander

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

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