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Beignets of Spinach

A fried dough cake made with spinach, egg yolks, butter, sugar, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Beignets of Spinach

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the washed spinach finely.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped spinach with egg yolks, butter, sugar, and bread crumbs.

Form and fry

  1. Form the mixture into round cakes.

  2. Fry the cakes in butter until golden brown.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Spinach + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Spinach
Provides the main bulk and green flavour of the beignets.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together and add richness to the cakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the cakes body so they hold their shape.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the outside brown when frying.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the exterior turn golden brown.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in butter until golden brown. Frying over moderate heat lets the outside brown and set before the moist spinach interior overcooks. Sugar browns faster than butter alone, so the cakes can scorch if the heat is too high.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, bread):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, bread. 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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