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Syringe Biscuits

A sweet almond and lemon zest biscuit shaped in a syringe mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Syringe Biscuits

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the paste

  1. Pound the almonds in a marble mortar until very fine, adding egg whites as needed to prevent them from becoming oily.

  2. When the mixture gets dry, add another egg white and continue to pound until smooth.

  3. Finely zest the lemons and mix the zest with the almonds and powdered sugar to form a paste.

Shape and bake

  1. Prepare a copper syringe mold, about 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, with a star-shaped hole at the bottom.

  2. Fill the mold halfway with the paste, then use a wooden rammer to squeeze it out onto a floured surface.

  3. Cut the paste into 3-inch pieces and shape them into rings.

  4. Place three sheets of paper under the rings before baking to prevent burning.

  5. Bake in a very brisk oven at 400°F (200°C).

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 + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Sweet almonds
Form the bulk of the paste, giving the biscuits their body and nutty flavor.
Egg whites
Bind the ground almonds into a smooth paste and keep it from becoming oily.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the paste hold its shape.
Lemons
Zest supplies fragrant citrus aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Pounding the almonds with egg whites. Almonds released oil when ground too hard or dry, which makes the paste greasy. Adding egg white in small amounts keeps it smooth and workable, so the rings hold their shape in the mold.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pistachiofits about as well
  2. Milletfits about as well
  3. Almondthe original
  4. Chickpeafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, 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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