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Dessert

Almond Cream

A sweet almond custard made with ground almonds, egg whites, milk, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch and finely grind the almonds with a little water.

Make the cream

  1. Beat the egg whites until frothy, then mix in the powdered sugar.

  2. Add the milk to the egg mixture and combine well.

  3. Boil the mixture gently over low heat until reduced by a quarter.

  4. Stir in the almond paste and boil for an additional 5 minutes.

  5. Flavor to taste, then let cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooled, sprinkle generously with granulated sugar and garnish with whole almonds.

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 + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Almonds
Provide the main flavour and body of the cream once finely ground.
Egg whites
Add foam and help bind the mixture as it cooks.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly into the egg whites.
Milk
Supplies liquid and richness, thickening as it reduces.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture gently over low heat until reduced by a quarter. Gentle heat keeps the egg proteins from scrambling and curdling while the liquid thickens. Boiling too hard can make the mixture grainy or split it.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Cocoafits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk. 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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