Name: Galette, a Cake to Be Eaten with Sweetmeats
Ingredients: 6 ounces butter; 6 ounces flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 eggs; 2 eggs (for topping); 2 tablespoons cream

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Galette, a Cake to Be Eaten with Sweetmeats

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the base

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, knead together the butter, flour, salt, and 2 eggs into a paste.
Roll the paste thin, about the thickness of a coin, and shape it into a circle the size of a dessert plate.
Use the back of a knife to mark the surface in a diamond pattern.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Add the topping and finish

In a separate bowl, beat the remaining 2 eggs with the cream and a pinch of salt.
Pour the egg mixture over the baked cake and return it to the oven for another 15 minutes.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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

Butter: Adds richness and tenderness to the paste, carrying flavour through the cake.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the paste together and gives the cake its body.
Eggs: Bind the paste and set the topping, giving it a firm, custard-like texture.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness to the egg topping, keeping it soft as it bakes.

“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.