Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Drop Cakes
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix flour, butter, sugar, and currants.
Add eggs, orange flower water, and white wine to form a paste.
If the mixture is too thin, omit the white of one egg.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking sheet.
Bake until golden brown.
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.
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Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Orange + white winetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together730 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Currant + white winetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together276 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, contributing tenderness and browning.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown as they bake.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add structure and moisture to the cakes.
- White wine
- Adds moisture and acidity to loosen the paste.
The step that matters
Adjusting the paste consistency. If the mixture is too thin, the drops spread on the baking sheet and lose their shape. Omitting the white of one egg thickens it by reducing liquid and protein-based binding, which helps the cakes hold their form in the oven.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, currant, egg, white wine):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, currant, egg, white wine. 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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