Name: Almond Paste Pickles
Ingredients: Almond paste (amount as desired); Food coloring (delicate green); 10 lbs sugar; 2 quarts water; 1 teaspoon cream of tartar; Peppermint flavoring

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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 270°F (132°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the almond paste

Color the almond paste a delicate green.
Pinch off small pieces, the size of a marble.
Roll each piece on an orange grater to create impressions.
Lay the pieces in pans to dry.

Make the candy base

In a saucepan, combine sugar, water, and cream of tartar.
Cook the mixture to 270°F (132°C).
Pour the cooked mixture onto a slab.
Pull the slab on a hook.
Flavor the mixture with peppermint.
Pull the mixture out like a stick.
Cut into small pieces with shears.
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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Almond + pepperminttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together208 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,130 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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 bulk of the candy and, once cooked and worked, sets into a crystalline texture.
Cream of tartar: Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent unwanted sugar crystallization during cooking.
Almond paste: Provides the main almond flavor and a dense, chewy base for the pickle shapes.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture to 270°F (132°C). Cooking the sugar syrup to the stated temperature controls how much water remains, which determines whether the candy pulls, sets firm, and crystallizes as intended. Too low leaves it sticky; too high makes it brittle.