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Dessert

Almond Sticks

A baked almond stick made with eggs, sugar, spices, flour, almonds, vanilla, baking powder, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 Sticks

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs until very light.

  2. Add the brown sugar and beat well.

  3. Mix in the remaining ingredients.

  4. Spread the mixture in a greased pan to ½ inch thick.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  2. Let cool, then ice and cut into strips ¼ inch wide and ¼ inch long.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten until light, they add structure and lift to the batter.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the bake brown and stay tender.
Flour
Forms the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Almonds
Add texture and a nutty flavour that holds up through baking.

The step that matters

Spread the mixture to ½ inch thick. Even thickness makes the sticks bake evenly, so the centre sets without the edges over-browning or drying out.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits less well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, clove, sugar, cinnamon, flour, allspice, vanilla. 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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