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Almond Faggots

Almond Faggots are almond cakes made with sugar, almonds, and eggs, baked until light yellow.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond 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 ↓

Almond Faggots

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the almonds into thin strips.

  2. Separate the egg whites into one bowl and four yolks into another.

Make the mixture

  1. Beat the egg whites with a wooden whisk, then add the four yolks and powdered sugar.

  2. Whisk well and add the almonds.

  3. When the mixture is stiff, place wafer paper on plates and shape into small faggots.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) until light yellow.

  2. Once cool, cut them out of the paper, leaving enough paper for them to stand upon.

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. Sugar + almondtop 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

Eggs
Whites whipped into a foam give the faggots their light, airy structure, while yolks add richness.
Almonds
Thin strips add body and a chewy, nutty texture to the mixture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.

The step that matters

Bake in a gentle oven. Egg proteins set gently at moderate heat, keeping the faggots light. Too much heat browns the sugar and almonds quickly and dries the centres, so they turn hard instead of tender.

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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