Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
To Make an Almond Cake
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
Blanch and finely pound the Jordan and bitter almonds.
Beat the yolks of the eggs into the almond mixture.
Whisk the egg whites until they form a solid froth.
In a bowl, mix the sugar, flour, lemon peel, and cinnamon.
Combine all ingredients together.
Bake
Grease a mold with fresh butter and fill it with the mixture.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until light in color.
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.
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Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Yolks bind the almond mixture and whites, whisked to foam, lighten the batter and give it rise.
- Jordan almonds
- Finely pounded almonds form the body of the cake and provide its nutty, tender crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Flour adds a little starch to help the batter hold its shape while baking.
- Sugar
- Sugar sweetens the cake and helps it brown lightly as it bakes.
The step that matters
Whisk the egg whites until they form a solid froth. Egg whites trap air when whisked, and that air expands in the oven to lift the cake. Under-whipped whites leave the cake dense, and over-mixing them once folded in will deflate the foam.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, egg, sugar, flour, cinnamon, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, egg, sugar, flour, cinnamon, butter. 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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