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Dessert

Cold Sweet Entremets

A chocolate cake flavored with lemon rind, cinnamon, and rum, finished with icing and optional butter or royal icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Cold Sweet Entremets

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the eggs for about 20 minutes.

  2. Mix in the lemon rind, cinnamon, rum, and then the grated chocolate.

  3. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.

Bake and finish

  1. Half fill a well-buttered and floured cake mold with the batter.

  2. Sprinkle grated chocolate over the batter, then add the remaining mixture and smooth the surface.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 50 minutes.

  4. Unmold, let cool, and cover with water icing.

  5. Decorate with creamed butter or royal icing and glace fruit.

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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Rum + chocolatetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together286 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + rumtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together508 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Whisked whites trap air for lift, and the beaten eggs give the cake structure and a light crumb.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender texture and moist crumb.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps hold air in the batter while it sets, adding tenderness.
Vienna flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that sets the cake's structure as it bakes.
Grated chocolate
Adds flavor and richness, and melts into the batter to deepen moisture and color.
Ground rice
Gives a finer, more tender crumb by partly replacing wheat flour's gluten.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten to stiff peaks hold the air that lifts the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the foam and leaves a dense cake.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cinnamon, rum, chocolate, sugar, butter, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cinnamon, rum, chocolate, sugar, butter, flour. 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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