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Dessert

Capercailzie, Roasted

A baked almond cake made with butter, sugar, egg yolks and whipped egg whites, served with hot raspberry syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Capercailzie, Roasted

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

  1. Soak the cake crumbs in cinnamon for 10 minutes, then strain.

  2. Prepare a well-buttered mold and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the egg yolks one at a time, stirring in the almonds and nutmeg.

  3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gently fold them into the mixture, adding flour gradually.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour in the mixture and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. Turn out and serve with hot raspberry syrup.

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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Almond + raspberrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together552 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whisked until stiff, they trap air that lightens the cake's structure as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify with the butter and sugar, giving the batter a tender texture.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to hold air and add fat for a tender, moist crumb.
Flour
Adds structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Almonds
Ground almonds add body, moisture and nutty flavor to the crumb.

The step that matters

Folding the whisked egg whites. Whipped whites hold the air that lifts the cake. Folding gently and adding flour gradually keeps that air from collapsing, so the cake rises evenly instead of turning dense.

Swap the raspberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, almond, nutmeg, flour, syrup):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, almond, nutmeg, flour, syrup. 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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