Name: Small Wafers, with Almonds D’ Avelines
Ingredients: 4 ounces biscuit à la cuillière (spoon biscuit); 4 ounces almonds d’avelines (cut into very thin fillets); 2 ounces fine sugar

Why it works: Biscuit and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 388 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Small Wafers, with Almonds D’ Avelines

Ingredients

4 ounces biscuit à la cuillière (spoon biscuit)
4 ounces almonds d’avelines (cut into very thin fillets)
2 ounces fine sugar

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Pour the biscuit onto a lightly buttered baking plate.
Stir the biscuit to soften it, then level it with a knife blade.
Sprinkle the almonds and fine sugar evenly over the top.

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.

Biscuit + almondtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together388 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Biscuit + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,874 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

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