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Walnut Biscuits

A biscuit made from Jordan almonds, sugar, and egg whites, baked until lightly colored.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Walnut Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the paste

  1. Blanch and pound the Jordan almonds with the egg whites until very fine.

  2. Mix in the sugar to form a paste.

  3. Place the paste in a small copper pan and dry it over gentle heat until stiff.

  4. Remove from heat, let cool, and cut into small pieces.

Shape and bake

  1. Push the pieces into your molds.

  2. Bake in a slack oven (300°F/150°C) until they have little or no color.

  3. Once cooled, stick the shell and kernel together with a little melted gum arabic.

  4. Return to the oven for 2-3 minutes to dry.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Jordan almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the biscuits.
Sugar
Sweetens the paste and helps it dry to a firm, stable texture.
Egg whites
Bind the finely pounded almonds into a cohesive paste that holds its shape.
Gum arabic (in the method)
Acts as an adhesive to stick the shell and kernel halves together.

The step that matters

Drying the paste over gentle heat until stiff. Too much heat can brown or scorch the sugar and almonds, while too little leaves the paste soft and unable to hold its molded shape. Gentle, steady heat drives off moisture slowly so the paste sets firm without coloring.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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