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Dessert

Wafers, with Pistachios

Thin almond wafers studded with pistachios, baked until lightly browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and pistachio match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Wafers, with Pistachios

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. In a small bowl, combine the almonds, sugar, flour, orange peel, whole eggs, egg yolk, and salt.

  2. Gently stir the mixture with a spatula to avoid breaking the almonds.

  3. Lightly butter a baking sheet (18 inches long by 12 inches wide).

  4. Pour the mixture onto the sheet, leveling it with a knife.

  5. Sprinkle the pistachios evenly over the mixture.

Bake and shape

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until both sides are light brown, watching closely to avoid overbaking.

  2. Cut the wafer into 2-inch wide strips.

  3. Cut the strips into 2 to 2.5-inch long pieces.

  4. Shape the wafers by bending them over a roller (1.5 inches in diameter) while placing them in the oven to maintain their form.

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 + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  4. Flour + pistachiotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Orange + pistachiotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the wafer.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the wafer brown evenly in the oven.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking to hold the wafer together.
Flour
Adds a small amount of structure to help the batter hold its shape.
Pistachios
Add flavor, color and crunch to the finished wafers.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown, not longer. Sugar and egg proteins brown quickly, and overbaking makes the thin wafer dark and brittle, so it can crack when shaped.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, flour, egg, pistachio. 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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