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Dessert

Almond Cheese Cakes

A sweet almond cake made with powdered sugar, egg whites, almonds, Jordan almonds, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 ↓

Almond Cheese Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond base

  1. Beat together the powdered sugar and egg whites until light.

  2. Blanch and chop the almonds, then beat them with the egg mixture.

  3. Add a little oil of almonds or rose water.

  4. Soak the Jordan almonds in cold water overnight, then blanch and dry them.

  5. Beat the Jordan almonds in a mortar with a little orange-flower or rose water.

Make the filling

  1. Beat and strain the egg yolks and whites, then mix in the white sugar and powdered mace.

  2. Melt the butter and add the grated lemon peel.

  3. Combine all ingredients and fill the pastry-lined pans.

Bake

  1. Bake in small tin shapes.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whisked into the sugar and almond mixture to lighten it and help it set when baked.
Egg yolks
Add richness and moisture, and help bind the filling as it sets.
Almonds
Provide the main flavour and a tender, moist crumb in the filling.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the base and helps create a smooth, light mixture when beaten with egg whites.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

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