Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Vanity Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Beat the eggs in a bowl until well mixed.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until a smooth dough forms.
Roll the dough thin, like a wafer.
Fry and serve
Cut the rolled dough into patterns.
Fry the cut patterns in hot lard until golden brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 as they set in the frying fat.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough, which holds its shape when rolled thin and fried.
- Lard
- Frying fat that transfers heat to the dough, cooking it quickly and browning its surface.
The step that matters
Frying in hot lard. The lard must be hot enough to cook the thin dough quickly. If it is too cool, the pieces absorb excess fat and turn greasy instead of crisp and golden.
“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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