Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Pasta Mandorle Per Fiori
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sugar base
Crush 1 kg of blanched almonds into granules.
Cook 2 kg of sugar until it reaches a strong boil, adding 100 g of glucose.
Form the paste
Combine the cooked sugar with the crushed almonds and mix until the sugar crystallizes.
Pass the mixture through a roller machine several times to achieve a very thin paste, avoiding oil from the almonds.
Transfer the paste to a marble table and incorporate 50 g of previously prepared gum tragacanth by hand.
Finally, harden the mixture with powdered sugar until it becomes soft and elastic.
Flavor and color as desired.
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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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the cooked base that crystallizes and binds the almonds into a paste.
- Blanched almonds
- Provide the bulk and fat-rich body of the paste.
- Glucose
- Limits sugar crystallization, keeping the paste smoother and more pliable.
- Gum tragacanth
- Adds elasticity and body so the paste holds its shape and stays soft.
The step that matters
Cooking the sugar to a strong boil. The sugar must reach the right concentration before it meets the almonds. Too little cooking leaves the paste wet and sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle once it cools and crystallizes.
“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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