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Dessert

Almond Paste

Almond paste is a finely ground mixture of sweet and bitter almonds with powdered sugar, used as a filling or confection.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Remove the skins from the bitter almonds and pound both types of almonds very finely, using just enough water to prevent them from becoming oily.

Cook the paste

  1. In a small saucepan, combine the almond paste and powdered sugar, mixing well.

  2. Place the saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent burning.

  3. When the paste no longer sticks to the pan and forms a cohesive mass, it is done.

Finish

  1. Dust your work surface with a little flour to prevent sticking.

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 + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main bulk and mild almond flavor of the paste.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated, sharp almond aroma to the paste.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves into the paste, giving it a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Stirring over low heat until the paste forms a mass. Sugar and almond oils can scorch on direct heat, so low heat and constant stirring prevent burning. Cooking must continue until the paste pulls away from the pan, since stopping early leaves it sticky and soft.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour. 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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