Why it works: Currant and rose work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 494 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Queen-cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, mix the dried flour, sifted sugar, and washed currants.
Make the batter
In another bowl, beat the butter well, then mix in the egg yolks and whites.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, beating for one hour.
Bake
Butter small tins, teacups, or saucers and fill them half full with the batter.
Sprinkle a little fine sugar over the batter before placing them in the oven.
Bake for about 20 minutes until golden.
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.
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Currant + rosetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together494 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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
- Dried flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness, and helps give the cake its texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter together.
- Sifted sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown as it bakes.
The step that matters
Beating the batter. Beating the butter well before adding the eggs and dry ingredients traps air in the batter, which helps the cake rise and become light. Adding the dry ingredients gradually keeps the mixture smooth and prevents lumps.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, rose, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, rose, egg. 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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