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Dessert

Almond Fingers

Fried bread pieces coated in orange juice, almonds, eggs, breadcrumbs, and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Fingers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut stale bread into pieces 4 inches long, 1 inch wide, and ½ inch thick.

  2. Dip each piece in orange juice, then in minced almonds, then in beaten eggs, and finally in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat hot lard in a frying basket.

  2. Fry the bread pieces in deep fat until brown.

  3. Lift the pieces to drain on paper.

  4. Arrange on a folded napkin and sift powdered sugar over them.

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. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together858 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Bread + orangetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,084 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Forms the body of each finger and crisps to a sturdy shell when fried.
2 eggs, beaten
Binds the coatings together and sets during frying to hold the crust in place.
Minced almonds
Adds nutty flavour and a crunchy texture to the coating.
Bread crumbs
Provides an outer layer that browns and crisps in the hot fat.
Orange juice
Moistens the bread and adds a bright, acidic citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Fry the bread pieces in deep fat until brown. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the coating quickly. If it is too cool, the bread absorbs grease and turns soggy, while over-long frying can burn the outside before the inside is heated through.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, almond, egg, sugar. 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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