Why it works: Almond and orange 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 ↓
Petits Fours
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Blanch 3 ounces of almonds and slice them thinly.
In a saucepan, combine the sliced almonds with 2 ounces of clarified sugar and cook until the sugar is dry, stirring with a spatula.
Let the almond mixture cool.
In a bowl, mix 10 ounces of sugar with 1.5 ounces of egg white for 10 minutes using a spatula.
Add the cooked almonds and the pralined orange blossom to the sugar mixture and mix well.
Ensure the mixture holds its shape when piped onto parchment paper.
If too soft, add powdered sugar; if too thick, add a little egg white, mixing thoroughly.
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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Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,125 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, almond, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, almond, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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