Name: Syringe Biscuits
Ingredients: 1 pound sweet almonds; whites of eggs (as needed); rind of 6 lemons, finely grated; 2 ½ pounds powdered sugar; flour (for dusting); syrup of sugar (for optional caramel); Jordan almonds (for optional caramel); orange flower water (for optional icing)

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Syringe Biscuits

Ingredients

1 pound sweet almonds
whites of eggs (as needed)
rind of 6 lemons, finely grated
2 ½ pounds powdered sugar
flour (for dusting)
syrup of sugar (for optional caramel)
Jordan almonds (for optional caramel)
orange flower water (for optional icing)

Directions

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

Make the paste

Pound the almonds in a marble mortar until very fine, adding whites of eggs as needed to prevent oiliness.
When the mixture gets dry, add another white of egg and continue pounding until smooth.
Mix the ground almonds, lemon rind, and powdered sugar to form a paste.

Shape the biscuits

Fill a copper syringe mold halfway with the paste.
Use a wooden rammer to squeeze the paste out onto a floured surface.
Cut the paste into 3‑inch pieces.
Join the pieces into rings.

Bake

Place three sheets of paper under the biscuits before baking in a brisk oven (400°F / 200°C) to prevent burning.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 of the paste, with their oils giving a rich, tender texture.
Whites of eggs: Bind the ground almonds into a smooth, workable paste that holds its shape.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the paste and helps it hold together as a firm dough.
Lemon rind: Adds aromatic citrus flavour to the paste.

The step that matters

Pounding the almonds with egg white. Almonds release oil as they are ground, so adding egg white in small amounts keeps the paste from turning greasy and helps it become smooth and cohesive.

“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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Syringe Biscuits