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Dessert

Date Straws

A cake made with egg whites, sugar, vanilla, flour, almonds, dates, and figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 324 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Date Straws

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 batter

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add the sugar and vanilla extract, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add flour until the batter is rather stiff.

  4. Fold in the chopped almonds, dates, and figs.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut the mixture into oblong pieces.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until a delicate brown.

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. Vanilla + figtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together324 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Almond + figtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they give the cake its light, airy structure.
Flour
Adds bulk so the batter holds its shape rather than spreading.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown during baking.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness to the finished cake.
Figs
Add moisture and natural sweetness to the finished cake.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft crumb.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the batter is rather stiff. Adding flour slowly while the whipped egg whites are still airy keeps the foam from collapsing. Too much flour added at once makes the batter dense, while too little leaves it too loose to hold its cut shape.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, vanilla, flour, almond, fig):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, vanilla, flour, almond, fig. 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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