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Dessert

Almond Cream

A sweet cream dessert made with almonds, spices, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds.

  2. Beat the blanched almonds finely with the rose or orange flower water.

  3. Strain the beaten egg whites into the almond mixture.

  4. Beat the mixture together.

  5. Rub the mixture through a coarse sieve.

Make the cream

  1. Boil the cream with grated nutmeg, mace, lemon peel, and sugar to taste.

  2. Combine the almond mixture with the cream.

  3. Heat the combined mixture on the stove.

  4. Stir continuously until it boils.

  5. Pour the hot mixture into cups or dishes.

  6. Refrigerate until cold before serving.

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. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor, becoming a thick, creamy base when finely beaten.
Egg whites
Help thicken and set the mixture as it heats, giving it a firmer, custard-like texture.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the dessert a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the rich cream and almonds.

The step that matters

Stir continuously until it boils. Egg whites can curdle or scramble if the mixture overheats or heats unevenly. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the mixture thickens smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, nutmeg, lemon, sugar, almond, rose, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, nutmeg, lemon, sugar, almond, rose, 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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