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Dessert

Almond Bread

A sweet almond bread made with sweet and bitter almonds, sugar, lemon rind, flour, and egg, baked and decorated with nonpareil sugar‑plums.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Almond Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Bruise the sweet and bitter almonds in a mortar until fine.

  2. Add the whole egg and continue to rub until smooth; add more egg if it gets oily.

  3. Mix in the sifted sugar and grated lemon rind until it forms a soft batter.

  4. Stir in the flour until well combined.

Bake and finish

  1. Butter a square flat tin with sides about 2 inches high.

  2. Pour the batter into the tin and bake in a warm oven (350°F/175°C) until set.

  3. Once cooled, ice the top and sprinkle with nonpareil sugar-plums.

  4. Cut into small squares and diamonds.

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 + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + plumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the bread.
Bitter almonds
Add a sharper, more intense almond aroma that balances the sweetness.
Whole egg
Binds the ground almonds into a smooth, cohesive batter that sets when baked.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it set with a tender, crumbly texture.
Flour
Adds structure so the batter holds its shape when baked.

The step that matters

Rubbing in the egg. Almonds release oil as they are ground, so the mixture can turn oily and separate. Adding egg gradually and rubbing until smooth keeps the batter emulsified and even.

Swap the plum

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, egg, sugar, lemon, flour, butter. 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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