Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Madeleine Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Beat the eggs until the yolks and whites are fully mixed.
Gradually add the flour, sugar, salt, and grated lemon peel, mixing thoroughly.
Work in the butter using wooden spoons, avoiding manual labor if possible.
Bake and fill
Butter various shaped pattipans and fill each halfway with the batter.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.
Remove the cakes from the pans and place them on buttered paper over thin iron plates.
For half the cakes, remove a portion from the center and fill with your choice of marmalades, cream, jams, jelly, or sweet-meats.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Beaten eggs trap air and provide structure and lift to the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cakes together after baking.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the cakes a fine, tender crumb.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing tenderness and flavor to the cakes.
The step that matters
Work in the butter gently. Overworking the batter after the butter is added can knock out trapped air and make the cakes dense and tough, so it should be mixed only until combined.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, butter, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, butter, cream. 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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