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Dessert

Pastry Nut Sticks

Pastry sticks made from plain paste, topped with shredded almonds and powdered sugar, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Pastry Nut Sticks

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Roll the plain paste as thinly as possible.

  2. Cut into strips 3.5 inches long and 1.5 inches wide.

  3. Brush the strips with beaten egg white.

  4. Sprinkle with shredded almonds and powdered sugar.

Bake

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°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. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 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

Plain paste
Forms the crisp, flaky base that holds the toppings.
Egg white
Brushed on as a glue so the almonds and sugar stick to the pastry.
Blanched almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the top of the sticks.
Powdered sugar
Melts slightly and caramelizes in the oven for sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Baking until delicately browned. Pastry can go from pale to burnt quickly at high heat. Pulling it when it is just golden keeps it crisp and avoids bitter, over-browned sugar and almonds.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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