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Petits Fours

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,733 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Petits Fours

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut 201 sheets of pastry the same size as coins.

  2. Place apple paste between two sheets of pastry.

  3. Prepare roasted almonds by surrounding them with orgeat paste.

  4. Coat the almonds with caramel.

  5. For imitation walnuts, peel walnut halves and form a shell with chocolate paste, then press a walnut half on top.

  6. For imitation green almonds, shape small pieces of pistachio paste into half-almonds and place a dried sweet almond on top.

  7. To caramelize, prepare all items in advance.

  8. Use metal skewers for easier handling when dipping in caramel.

  9. Tilt the pan with cooked sugar and dip the skewers into the sugar, then place them in a coarse sieve to cool.

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. Almond + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple + almondtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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 apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, chocolate, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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