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Dessert

Old-fa Shi on Ed Jumble S

A small pastry made from a butter and flour dough, topped with butter and sugar, flavored with rose water and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Old-fa Shi on Ed Jumble S

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the first jumbles

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt in a bowl.

  3. Add enough flour to form a stiff dough that can be rolled out thin.

  4. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to 1/8 inch thick.

  5. Cut the dough into shapes.

  6. Place the shapes on shallow tins.

  7. Dot the shapes with small lumps of butter.

  8. Sprinkle the shapes with sugar.

  9. Bake for 3 to 5 minutes until slightly browned.

Make the second jumbles

  1. Cream together butter and powdered sugar.

  2. Beat in the eggs.

  3. Add rose-water, grated nutmeg, and flour to the mixture.

  4. Roll out the mixture.

  5. Cut into rings.

  6. Remove the center of each ring.

  7. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the edges brown slightly.

  8. Brush the pastries with egg white.

  9. Sprinkle with coarse sugar before serving.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon 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
Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the pastry.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness and helps the pastry brown in the oven.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dough so it can be rolled out and hold its shape.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dough and creams with butter to give a fine, tender texture.
Rose-water
Adds a delicate floral aroma to the dough.

The step that matters

Bake until only slightly browned. Jumbles are thin and dry out and darken quickly, so they should be removed once the edges just brown. Over-baking makes them hard and bitter.

“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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