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Dessert

Little Almond-cream

A custard made from ground sweet almonds, cream, and egg yolks, thickened over low heat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,130 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

Little Almond-cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely grind the sweet almonds.

  2. Combine the ground almonds with 1 pint of cream and bring to a boil.

  3. Strain the mixture.

Make the custard

  1. Whisk the egg yolks and add them to the strained cream.

  2. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring until it thickens like custard.

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

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

  2. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 nutty flavour and body of the cream after grinding and straining.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, forming the liquid base of the custard.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream as they set gently with heat, giving a custard texture.

The step that matters

Heating the custard over low heat. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the mixture gets too hot, the proteins can curdle and turn grainy. Low heat and steady stirring keep it smooth.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Filbertfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg. 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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