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Dessert

York Drops

York Drops are almond drop cakes made with sweet almonds, egg whites, and sifted loaf sugar.

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 ↓

York Drops

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Bruise the almonds in a mortar until fine.

  2. Add the first 3 egg whites and rub with a pestle until smooth.

  3. Incorporate the remaining 4 egg whites and the sifted sugar. Mix well and lay out on paper in sizes of large peas.

  4. Bake in a warm oven until done and cool, then remove from paper.

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. Almond + eggtop 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the drops.
Egg whites
Bind the almond paste and give the drops structure and a light, set texture when baked.
Sifted loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the drops set and brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Rubbing the egg whites into the almonds. Working the whites in gradually until smooth gives an even paste, so the drops bake evenly and hold their shape instead of cracking or spreading unevenly.

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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