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Almonds Blown Royal

A confection of almonds coated with sugar and egg, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almonds Blown Royal

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the almonds

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the almonds in the oven until slightly colored.

  3. Let the almonds cool.

Make the coating

  1. In a bowl, mix the sugar and egg, beating for 10 minutes.

  2. Add a little carmine to achieve a fine rose color.

  3. Dip the cooled almonds into the egg mixture, ensuring they are just covered.

Bake and serve

  1. Arrange the almonds in pairs on a sheet of strong paper, leaving ¾ inch between each pair.

  2. Bake in a cool oven until set.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Form the main body of the confection, providing crunch and nutty flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the coating and helps it set into a crisp, glossy shell.
Egg
Binds the sugar into a coating that dries and sets on the almonds.

The step that matters

Dip the almonds lightly. Only a thin film of egg and sugar should cover each almond. A heavy coat stays sticky and fails to set crisp when baked, while a thin, even layer dries into a firm shell.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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