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Dessert

Almond Cakes

Almond Cakes are made with butter, spices, almonds, lemon rind, sugar, brandy, cinnamon, flour, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Almond Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the butter in a large bowl.

  2. Add the beaten egg and finely chopped almonds, mixing well.

  3. Incorporate the remaining ingredients until combined.

  4. Toss the dough on a floured surface and roll to ¼ inch thickness.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape with a round cutter dipped in flour.

  2. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until delicately browned.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the cakes a tender, short crumb.
Blanched almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the dough.
Egg
Binds the dough together and adds structure as it sets.
Flour
Gives the dough structure so it can be rolled and cut.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake in a cool oven until delicately browned. A low oven at 300°F bakes the cakes through gently while the sugar and butter brown slowly. Too hot an oven would scorch the outside before the centre is set.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, nutmeg, almond, lemon, sugar, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, nutmeg, almond, lemon, sugar, brandy. 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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