Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
A Small Fine Almond Cake
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.
Prepare
In a bowl, combine powdered sugar and egg yolks.
Pound the almonds very fine in a mortar with 1 or 2 egg whites.
Mix the almond paste with the yolks and sugar using a wooden spoon.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff in a copper pan.
Gently fold the almond mixture into the whipped egg whites.
Sift the flour and mix it in lightly.
Bake
Prepare a baking pan by lining it with 3 layers of parchment paper inside and 4 at the bottom.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Dust the top of the batter with powdered sugar before baking.
If the top browns too quickly, cover it with parchment paper.
Bake for about 30 minutes.
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.
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Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Eggs
- Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air, giving the cake its light structure.
- Almonds
- Ground almonds provide the body and nutty flavour of the cake.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps create a fine, tender crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds a small amount of starch that helps set the structure of the cake.
The step that matters
Gently fold the almond mixture into the whipped egg whites. Folding keeps the air bubbles in the whipped whites intact. Stirring or beating hard would deflate them, leaving a dense cake.
“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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