Why it works: Almond and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 238 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Lyonnaise Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Pound the almonds to a paste with the white of 1 egg.
Mix with it the rum and sugar, then one at a time the yolks of the eggs beating hard.
Add gently the sifted flour and the stiffly beaten whites of the 2 remaining eggs.
Bake and fill
Butter a dome shaped mould; pour in the batter, and bake in a moderate oven 25 minutes.
Take out, let cool, turn out of the mould and cut crosswise into half-inch slices.
Spread a good custard filling over each slice, and replace the slices as they were originally.
Decorate and serve
Put the cake on a dish, decorate with whipped cream, and serve with a claret Sahayon sauce in a separate bowl.
Optional: make without whipped cream and with a simpler sauce.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Rum | 1/2 oz (15ml) | 32 |
| Almond | 1 almond (1.2g) | 7 |
| Bean | not in our table | 0 |
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.
-
Almond + beanstop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together238 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,908 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Almond + rumtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together313 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
-
Rum + beanstop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together60 recipes
Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Almonds
- Ground to a paste, they give the cake body, richness and a tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while beaten whites add lift and a light structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps keep the crumb soft.
- Jamaica rum
- Adds aroma and flavour that comes through the sweet almond base.
The step that matters
Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Whites hold air that gives the cake its rise. Folding gently keeps that air in the batter, while vigorous stirring deflates it and produces a heavy, dense cake.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, rum, egg):
- Pistachiofits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, rum, 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.
You might also like
Almond Sponge Cake26 recipes
Almond Custard22 recipes
Almond Wafers22 recipes
Coconut Almond Cake17 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.