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Midday Itot Lunchhon

A lunch menu featuring peanut fritters, French dressing, almond cake, grilled almonds, and a vegetable salad.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Vegetarian Society of America · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Midday Itot Lunchhon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the peanut fritters

  1. Peanut Fritters: Take two tablespoons of ground peanuts, a tablespoon of granola, 2 eggs, enough milk to make a thin batter, and a pinch of salt. Stir all together and drop spoonfuls onto a hot griddle.

Make the almond cake

  1. Almond Cake: Mix 2 cups sugar, 1 spoonful of butter, 2 tablespoons ground almonds, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 3 cups flour, a pinch of salt, and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Beat sugar, butter, and nuts together, add egg, then milk. Sieve flour, salt, and baking powder and mix in. Bake in a hot oven.

Make the grilled almonds and dressing

  1. Grilled Almonds: Prepare a cup of blanched and dried almonds. Boil 1 cup sugar with 4 cups water for about 10 minutes. Add almonds and continue boiling until the nuts turn faint yellow. Remove from heat and stir until syrup reaches the sugary stage, clinging to the nuts. Spread to cool on a plate with waxed paper. Serve as salted almonds.

  2. French Dressing: Combine 4 teaspoons of salt, 4 teaspoons of pepper, 4 teaspoons of paprika, a semi-sweet red pepper of Mexico, 1 tablespoon of fine vinegar, and 2 to 3 tablespoons of Diamond Butter Oil. Shake and serve on salad immediately.

Assemble the tid bit salad

  1. Tid Bit Salad: Take a small quantity of cold potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, and lentils, or any leftover vegetables. Chop together, add a small onion chopped with parsley, a few tablespoons of ground nuts, a little celery, and mustard seeds. Season to taste and add French dressing. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs and diced cold boiled beets. Simplify by using one or two vegetables.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

883Calories
27 gProtein
35 gFat
115 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 12 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Peanut1 oz (28g)161
Vegetable1 tbsp (14g)120
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Vegetarian Society of America. 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Peanut + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  4. Almond + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

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

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and set the fritters and cake structure as they cook.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the almond cake together.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, when boiled, forms the syrup that coats the almonds.
Ground almonds
Add nutty flavour and richness to the almond cake batter.
Baking powder (in the method)
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises in the oven.

The step that matters

Grilled Almonds: stirring the syrup. Sugar syrup can turn from clinging to crystallised if over-stirred or left too long, so the nuts must be stirred only until the syrup reaches the sugary stage and clings to them.

Swap the peanut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, almond, flour, egg, pepper, vinegar, parsley):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, almond, flour, egg, pepper, vinegar, parsley. 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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