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Savoy Biscuits

Savoy biscuits are made by mixing equal parts eggs, sugar, and flour, shaping into narrow biscuits, dusting with sifted loaf sugar, and baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Savoy Biscuits

Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Savoy Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix equal parts of eggs, sugar, and flour until thoroughly combined.

Shape and bake

  1. Using a piping bag, shape the mixture into narrow biscuits, 3 to 4 inches long, on a clean sheet of paper.

  2. Dust the tops of the biscuits with sifted loaf sugar.

  3. Transfer the biscuits to iron plates and bake in the hot oven until done.

Finish

  1. Once baked, wet the paper, remove the biscuits, and pair them together.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 eggs trap air and give the batter its light, sponge-like structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the biscuits and helps them brown while baking.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the batter into a firm, dry biscuit.

The step that matters

Shape and bake. The batter depends on the air whisked into the eggs, so it should be piped promptly and placed into the oven without delay. Waiting lets the air escape and the biscuits spread or bake up flat.

“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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