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Dessert

Almond Cream

A chilled dessert made from blended almonds, sugar, egg yolks, gelatin, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 the almonds and pound them in a mortar.

Make the cream

  1. Mix the pounded almonds with the sugar and beaten egg yolks.

  2. Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling milk, then strain it.

  3. Pour the strained milk into the almond mixture and stir over medium heat until thick and smooth.

  4. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. To serve, dip the mold in warm water, wipe it, and carefully turn out the cream onto a dish.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main flavour and body of the cream once pounded into a paste.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream as they heat and set, adding richness.
Gelatine
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
White sugar
Sweetens the cream and balances the richness of the almonds and yolks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that carries the almond flavour and sets with the gelatine.

The step that matters

Stir the milk into the almond mixture over medium heat. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can scramble if the heat is too high or the mixture is not stirred. Keep it moving until it coats a spoon smoothly.

Swap the almond

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