Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
A Nice 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 the almond paste
Blanch, dry, and pound the fresh and bitter almonds to a fine paste.
Moisten the paste with a few drops of water or egg white to prevent oiling.
Make the batter
Gradually mix in the whisked eggs until very light.
Slowly add the sugar while constantly stirring with a large wooden spoon.
Gradually mix in the flour.
Gently pour in the melted butter, beating it thoroughly into the mixture.
Add the grated lemon rind.
Bake
Fill a well-buttered mold more than half full with the mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours, covering with paper if it colors too quickly.
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 + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Fresh and bitter almonds
- Provide the main nutty flavor and the bulk of the cake's body.
- Eggs
- Add structure and lightness when whisked into the batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the cake a tender crumb.
- Flour
- Provides structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, giving the cake a tender texture.
The step that matters
Covering the cake if it colors too quickly. Sugar and egg proteins brown quickly in the oven, so a long bake can scorch the outside before the centre sets. Covering with paper slows browning while the interior finishes cooking.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, egg, sugar, flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, egg, sugar, flour, 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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