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German Almond Loaf

A yeast‑leavened loaf made with almonds, butter, milk, eggs, sugar, and lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

German Almond Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Combine ¾ cup milk, 3 tablespoons liquid yeast or 1 compressed yeast cake, and 3 cups flour to make the sponge.

Make the batter

  1. Beat 4 yolks with 1 cup sugar; add ¾ cup butter, ¾ cup warm milk, 3‑4 cups flour, halved blanched almonds (or halves of pecans or walnuts), and grated rind of 1‑1½ lemon.

  2. Beat yolks with sugar, add to butter that has been creamed with part of the flour; then add the flavoring, the sponge, the milk, and the flour alternating, beating until all flour is incorporated.

Bake

  1. Grease a tube mold or other pan with cold butter and arrange almonds in regular rows along the sides, avoiding the bottom.

  2. Half fill the pan with batter, let rise until nearly full, then bake for 1 hour or until the cake stops singing, in a moderate and slow oven to avoid burning the nuts.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

852Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
124 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 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
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Cakenot 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 Evora Bucknum Perkins. 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Yeast
Makes the sponge rise, lightening the crumb as the cake proves.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour and creating a fine, soft crumb.
Eggs yolks
Add richness, color and structure, helping the batter bind and set in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps brown the crust as it bakes.
Almonds
Add nutty flavor and texture, and are arranged on the pan sides as a visible decoration.

The step that matters

Bake slowly in a moderate oven. Nuts scorch easily at high heat, and the cake must set through to the center. A moderate, slow oven lets the crumb cook evenly while protecting the almonds from burning.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, flour, almond, egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, almond, egg, sugar. 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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