Why it works: Capsicum and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,963 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cayenne Pepper
Ingredients
Directions
Grind and color
Grind the Capsicum berries and coarse sea salt together.
Color the mixture with Vermillion (avoid using red lead).
Mix and bake
Bury the Capsicum in flour.
Bake until dry enough to powder.
Cut the dried Capsicum into small pieces using pincers.
For each ounce of Capsicum, add 1 pound of flour.
Mix in enough water and yeast to form small cakes.
Bake the cakes.
Slice and bake again until crisp.
Powder and sift
Powder the biscuits and sift them.
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.
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Capsicum + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,963 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
- Capsicum berries
- Supply the pungent heat and main flavor, and are dried so they can be powdered.
- Flour
- Absorbs moisture and binds the dried pepper into dough that holds its shape.
- Yeast
- Produces gas in the dough, lightening its texture as the cakes bake.
The step that matters
Bake until dry enough to powder. The pepper must lose enough moisture to become brittle and grind into a fine powder that keeps well. Underbaking leaves damp pieces that clump, while overbaking can scorch the pepper and dull its flavor.
“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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