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Dessert

Almond Icing

A sweet almond-based icing made with ground almonds, egg yolks, icing sugar, castor sugar, water, and almond essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar 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 Icing

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine ground almonds, sifted icing sugar, and half of the castor sugar in a saucepan.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks, water, and almond essence together.

  3. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to form a thick cream.

Warm and finish

  1. Place the saucepan over low heat until warmed through.

  2. Remove from heat and add the remaining icing sugar.

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. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Almond + eggtop 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

Ground almonds
Provides the bulk and body of the icing, giving it a thick, paste-like structure.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Icing sugar
Sweetens the icing and, being finely ground, keeps it smooth rather than gritty.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the almond mixture hold together as a cream.

The step that matters

Warming over low heat. Egg yolks can scramble or curdle when exposed to strong heat. Gentle, low heat warms the mixture evenly so it thickens smoothly without setting in lumps.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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