Name: Almond Paste
Ingredients: 1 pound raisins, stoned; 2 pounds blanched bitter almonds; ⅓ cup brandy; ⅓ cup honey; 2 beaten eggs; 6 pence worth of camphor; a little fine sand, sifted

Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Almond Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Pound and mix the raisins and blanched almonds thoroughly.
Add the camphor, brandy, honey, and beaten eggs.
Mix in the sifted fine sand until well combined.

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.

Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,781 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,768 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Almond + honeytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,069 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Brandy + honeytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together169 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,969 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Raisins: Provide sweetness and a moist, chewy body to the paste.
Blanched bitter almonds: Form the bulk of the paste and supply its rich, nutty flavor and texture.
Beaten eggs: Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape.
Honey: Adds sweetness and moisture that keeps the paste soft.
Brandy: Adds moisture and a warm, aromatic flavor.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, brandy, honey, egg, camphor):

Figfits better
Grapefits better
Vanillafits better
Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, brandy, honey, egg, camphor. 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.