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Dessert

Roached Almonds

Roasted almonds with candied orange peel, citron, flour, sugar, cinnamon or mace, and egg whites, baked into small balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Roached Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA medium oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the almonds, candied orange peel, and citron very fine.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped ingredients with flour, sugar, and cinnamon or mace.

  3. Add the whites of the eggs and mix until combined.

  4. Roll the mixture into balls about the size of a large marble.

Bake

  1. Place the balls on wafer paper and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  2. Bake until very crisp but not deeply colored.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the cookie.
Whites of eggs
Bind the chopped ingredients into a dough that holds its shape.
Flour
Adds a little structure so the balls hold together while baking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown and crisp as it bakes.
Candied orange peel
Adds concentrated citrus flavor and chewy sweetness throughout.

The step that matters

Bake until very crisp but not deeply colored. Egg white and sugar set and dry out as they bake, so the balls become crisp. Browning from sugar happens quickly at high heat, so stopping before deep color keeps the flavor mild and the texture crisp rather than bitter.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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