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Dessert

Richmond Maids of Honour

A sweet pastry made with cream, butter, egg yolks, brandy, sugar, potato, almonds, nuts, lemon, nutmeg, and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nuts work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 394 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Richmond Maids of Honour

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Mix the cream and butter together.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with the brandy and sugar until well combined.

  3. Boil the potato, let it cool, then rub it into a smooth flour.

  4. Pound the sweet and bitter almonds with the Barcelona nuts.

  5. Grate the lemon rind and add the lemon juice and nutmeg to the mixture.

  6. Combine all ingredients well, then add the cream and butter mixture.

Bake

  1. Line small patty pans with puff paste, trim the edges, and fill with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until golden.

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 + nutstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Potato + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together337 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the filling while setting during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling.
Potato
Adds body and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
Sweet and bitter almonds
Provide nutty flavour and body to the filling.
Puff paste
Forms the crisp, flaky case that holds the filling.

The step that matters

Bake in a hot oven until golden. Egg yolks set and the filling firms as it heats, while the puff paste must bake hot enough to become crisp and flaky rather than soggy. Watching for golden colour shows the case is cooked through.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, egg, brandy, sugar, almond, nuts):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, egg, brandy, sugar, almond, nuts. 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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