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Dessert

Almond Frosting

A sweet almond frosting made with sugar, boiling water, egg whites, blanched sweet almonds, and bitter almond flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almond Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pour boiling water over sugar and cook until it becomes ropy.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Stir the beaten egg whites into the sugar mixture until cold, stirring well.

  4. Add bitter almond flavoring to taste.

  5. Fold in the blanched sweet almonds.

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.

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. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolved in boiling water and cooked to a ropy syrup, which forms the sweet base of the frosting.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the frosting a light, airy texture.
Blanched sweet almonds
Folded in at the end to add body and a nutty texture to the frosting.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten egg whites into the sugar mixture until cold. The syrup must cool enough that it does not cook the egg whites or deflate their foam. Stirring steadily while it cools keeps the mixture smooth and airy.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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.

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