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Dessert

Sicily Biscuit

A sweet biscuit made with flour, eggs, sugar, candied orange peel, almonds, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond 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 ↓

Sicily Biscuit

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.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the sugar, candied orange peel, and egg yolks until well combined.

  2. Beat in the egg whites gradually, then add the flour, chopped almonds, and ground cloves.

Shape and bake

  1. Using a piping bag, pipe the mixture onto baking sheets in walnut-sized portions or fill small molds.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  3. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Almond + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap air for lift while yolks add richness and help set the crumb.
Flour
Starch and gluten form the structure that holds the biscuit together.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the surface brown as it bakes.
Almonds
Add texture and nutty richness, with their fat keeping the crumb tender.
Candied orange peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and chewy, sweet-tart flavour.
Cloves
Contribute a warm spice aroma in a small amount.

The step that matters

Beating in the egg whites gradually. Adding whites slowly lets them hold their air without collapsing. Their trapped air gives lift, so the batter loses volume if it is rushed or overmixed.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, sugar, orange, almond. 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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