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Dessert

Kringles

Kringles are sweet biscuits made with egg yolks, whites, butter, flour, sugar, spices, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 200 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Kringles

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Beat the yolks of 8 eggs and the whites of 2 eggs until well combined.

  2. Mix in 4 ounces of warmed butter.

  3. Knead in 1 pound of flour and 4 ounces of sugar to form a paste.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the paste into thick biscuits and prick them.

  2. Bake on tin plates in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

Make the richer bun

  1. For a richer bun, rub 4 ounces of butter into 2 pounds of flour and 4 ounces of sugar.

  2. Add nutmeg, Jamaica peppers, and 2 teaspoons of caraway seeds.

  3. Mix 1 cup of cream with enough milk to make a light paste and add to the flour mixture.

  4. Set aside to rise until the oven is ready.

Finish baking

  1. Bake on tins until done.

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. Nutmeg + carawaytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks and whites bind the dough and add richness and structure.
Butter
Fat that adds tenderness and a rich, short texture to the dough.
Flour
Forms the paste's structure once kneaded with the other ingredients.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface turn golden in the oven.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the richer bun softer and more tender.
Caraway seeds
Contribute a distinctive aromatic flavour to the bun.

“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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