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Dessert

Almond Creams, No. I

Almond cream balls made from almond paste, powdered sugar, vanilla, milk, and optional sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Creams, No. I

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond paste

  1. In a bowl, mix almond paste and powdered sugar until well combined.

  2. Add vanilla extract and milk, mixing until smooth.

Shape and set

  1. Shape the mixture into small balls or desired shapes.

  2. Sprinkle lightly with coarse sea salt if desired.

  3. Let sit until firm before serving.

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 + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

What each ingredient does

Almond paste
Provides the main almond flavor and the dense, sliceable body of the creams.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the mixture and dissolves easily, helping it blend smooth without graininess.
Milk
Adds moisture to loosen the paste so it mixes smooth and can be shaped.

The step that matters

Adding the milk gradually. Almond paste and sugar can turn stiff or crumbly if too much liquid goes in at once. Adding the milk a little at a time and mixing until smooth gives an even, pliable texture that holds its shape.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Cocoafits about as well
  3. Almondthe original
  4. Hazelnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla, milk. 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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