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Dessert

Almond Faggots

A sweet almond confection made from egg whites, yolks, powdered sugar, and dry almond strips, baked until colored.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Whisk the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add the egg yolks and powdered sugar, whisking until well combined.

  3. Fold in enough dry almond strips to make a stiff mixture.

Shape and bake

  1. Cover a plate or wire with wafer paper.

  2. Form small pointed heaps of the mixture on the paper.

  3. Bake in a slow oven until they are colored and done.

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

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

  3. Egg + almondtop 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

Egg whites
Whisked until stiff, they trap air and give the mixture its light, airy structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, softening the texture and adding flavor to the mixture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the mixture and dissolves easily into the whisked eggs for a smooth base.
Dry almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor, and help the heaps hold their shape.

The step that matters

Baking in a slow oven until colored and done. A slow oven dries the meringue-like mixture gradually so it sets through without scorching. Too hot and the outside browns before the inside dries, leaving the centers soft or the edges burnt.

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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