Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Anna Kadlec
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Sift three cups flour and mix with three-fourths cup granulated sugar and grated twenty-five almonds (not blanched).
Work in four ounces butter and five ounces lard.
Add two yolks and mix to a smooth dough.
Shape dough into balls the size of a walnut and press with thumb.
Bake and finish
Place dough on ungreased pans and bake in moderate oven until pale pink.
Pick up cookies carefully with knife and place on platter sprinkled with powdered sugar, then sprinkle powdered sugar on top.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Lard | 1 tbsp (12.8g) | 115 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Almond | 1 almond (1.2g) | 7 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cookie together as it bakes.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the cookies a tender, crisp bite.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour, making the cookies rich and tender.
- Lard
- Adds fat that keeps the cookies short and tender in texture.
- Yolks
- Add richness and help bind the dough into a smooth mass.
- Almonds
- Contribute nutty aroma and a slightly textured crumb.
The step that matters
Bake until pale pink. Baking should stop at a pale pink colour, since the cookies keep browning and drying out once they go past that point. Fat and sugar brown quickly, so watching the colour matters more than the clock.
“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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