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Almond Paste Pickles

A sweet treat made from almond paste coated in a sugar glaze and flavored with peppermint.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Almond Paste Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Color the almond paste a delicate green.

  2. Pinch off small pieces, the size of a marble.

  3. Roll each piece on an orange grater to create impressions.

  4. Lay the pieces in pans to dry.

Make the sugar mixture

  1. In a pot, combine sugar and water, then add cream of tartar.

  2. Cook the mixture to 270°F (132°C).

  3. Pour the cooked mixture onto a slab and pull it on a hook.

  4. Flavor the mixture with peppermint.

  5. Pull it out like a stick and cut into small pieces with scissors.

  6. When grained, crystallize the pieces.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Almond + pepperminttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together208 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Cream + pepperminttop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together632 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the sweet, crystallizable candy base that sets into a firm, brittle texture.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent unwanted sugar crystallization for a smoother texture.
Almond paste
Provides the almond-flavored, dense base that is shaped and dried into the pickle pieces.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar mixture to 270°F (132°C). The syrup's final temperature determines its water content and hardness once cooled. Undercooking leaves it soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it brittle and prone to burning.

Swap the peppermint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, cream):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Peppermintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, cream. 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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