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Dessert

Anna Kadlec

Almond torte made with sugar, baking powder, grated almonds, lemon rind, yolks, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Anna Kadlec

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks until thick and lemon-colored.

  2. Add the sugar and beat again.

  3. Add the remaining ingredients (baking powder, grated lemon rind, grated almonds, egg whites, flavour to taste).

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites last.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven for forty-five minutes.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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 + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Eggs
Beaten yolks thicken the batter, and whipped whites trap air that gives the torte its light structure.
Almonds
Grated almonds add body, nutty flavour and a moist, tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks thicken as they are beaten.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the torte rise in the oven.
Lemon
Its grated rind adds a fragrant citrus aroma to the batter.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites last. Whipped egg whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Stirring them vigorously or folding them in too early deflates the foam, so the torte bakes up dense instead of light.

Flavor stand-ins for the almond

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

  1. Pistachioabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Milletabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Almondthe original
  4. Chickpeaabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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