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Dessert

Almond Genoese, Bitter

A sponge cake made with sweet and bitter almonds, flour, sugar, eggs, brandy, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Almond Genoese, Bitter

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch and grind the sweet and bitter almonds into a paste.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the blanched sweet almond paste with flour, powdered sugar, egg yolks, whole eggs, brandy, and salt for 6 minutes.

  2. Incorporate the slightly warmed butter into the mixture for 4-5 minutes.

Bake and finish

  1. Butter two 9-10 inch square molds or paper cases and pour in the mixture.

  2. Smooth the top with a knife and sprinkle with minced sweet almonds mixed with powdered sugar and egg white.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  4. Cut into desired shapes and return to the oven to dry.

  5. Let cool and decorate as desired.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Eggs
Egg yolks and whole eggs build the airy, sponge-like structure that holds the cake together.
Flour
Provides the starch that sets during baking and gives the cake its firm crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture once the batter is baked.
Sweet almonds
Contribute nutty flavor, moisture and body through the paste and the minced topping.
Bitter almonds
Add a characteristic intense almond aroma and flavor to the cake.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps tenderize its crumb.

The step that matters

Incorporating the butter. The butter should be only slightly warmed so it blends evenly into the egg-and-almond batter; if it is too hot or melted, it can deflate the foam and make the crumb heavy and greasy.

“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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