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Dessert

Almond Drops

A simple baked almond drop cookie made with sugar, eggs, almonds, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Almond Drops

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs and sugar together until stiff.

  2. Add the chopped almonds, cinnamon, cloves, and enough flour to stiffen the mixture.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking pans.

  2. Bake until golden brown.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Beaten until stiff, they trap air that gives the drops lift and a light structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, with the eggs, helps the surface brown in the oven.
Chopped almonds
Add bulk, nutty flavor, and a firm, chewy texture to the drops.
Flour
Stiffens the mixture so the spoonfuls hold their shape while baking.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs and sugar until stiff. Beating eggs with sugar traps air in the foam, which gives the batter lift. If it is under-beaten, the drops will bake flatter and denser.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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