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Dessert

Pecan Sticks

Pecan sticks are small cakes made with pecan meats, eggs, sugar, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pecan Sticks

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pecans

  1. Dip the pecan meats in hot water for 2-3 seconds, then drain.

  2. When cool enough to handle, use a clean vegetable brush to remove the bitter skin.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Gradually add the sugar, melted butter, and sifted flour to the eggs.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) in buttered pans, filling each section with a small portion of batter to keep the cakes thin.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Pecan meats
Provide the main nutty flavor and crunchy texture of the cakes.
Eggs
Add structure and lift to the batter, binding it into thin cakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the oven.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Sifted flour
Gives the batter body so it holds its shape as it sets.

The step that matters

Keeping the cakes thin. Spreading only a small portion of batter in each section keeps the cakes thin, so they bake through evenly and turn crisp rather than cakey.

“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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