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Dandelion Loaf

A baked loaf made with flour, butter, milk or cream, eggs, ham, and minced cooked dandelions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Dandelion Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, cook the flour and butter over medium heat until combined.

  2. Add a dash of pepper, a dash of salt, and the milk or cream; bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the chopped ham and minced dandelions.

  4. Remove from heat and fold in the beaten eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.

  2. Place the mold in a baking dish filled with hot water and bake at 400°F (200°C) until the center is firm.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + dandeliontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + dandeliontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together77 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Set the mixture into a firm, sliceable loaf as they cook.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth base that holds the loaf together.
Milk or cream
Provides moisture and a tender, custard-like texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and keeps the loaf tender.
Minced cooked dandelions
Supplies the main green flavour and bulk of the loaf.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten eggs off the heat. Eggs set when heated, so adding them to a boiling mixture can scramble them. Folding them in after removing the pan from heat keeps the loaf smooth and even.

“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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