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Dessert

Almond Jumbles

A sweet baked confection of almonds, sugar, flour, eggs, butter, milk, rose water, and soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Almond Jumbles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream butter and sugar.

  2. Stir in the beaten yolks, the milk, flour, rose-water, and almonds.

  3. Stir in the beaten whites very lightly and quickly.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop in rings on buttered paper.

  2. Bake at once.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

840Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Rose + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the jumbles a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Beaten whites lighten the batter and add structure as it bakes; yolks add richness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the rings together as they bake.
Soft sugar
Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps give a light texture.
Soda dissolved in boiling water
Reacts with the acidic milk to lift the dough and help it rise.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and a bit of body to the dough.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten whites very lightly and quickly.. Beaten egg whites hold air that gives lightness. Overmixing deflates them, so the jumbles bake up flat and dense instead of tender.

“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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