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 ↓
Ratafia Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Blanch and pound the sweet and bitter almonds into a smooth paste.
In a bowl, beat the egg whites to a solid froth.
Make the batter
Gradually add the powdered sugar, lemon rind, and egg yolks, beating thoroughly.
Fold in the fine flour and the remaining whisked egg whites.
Butter a mold and fill it halfway with the mixture.
Bake and cool
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 45 minutes.
Let it stand for a few minutes, then shake to loosen and carefully remove.
Set the cake on a reversed sieve until cold.
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.
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Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Sweet almonds
- Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the cake as a fine paste.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a deeper, aromatic almond flavor that balances the sweetness.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to a foam, they trap air and help the cake rise and set.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and moisture, giving a tender crumb.
- Powdered loaf sugar
- Sweetens the batter and dissolves smoothly into the mixture.
- Fine flour
- Gives the batter structure as it sets in the oven.
The step that matters
Folding in the whisked egg whites. The whites hold the air that lifts the cake. Folding them in gently keeps that foam intact, so the cake rises evenly instead of turning dense.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, egg, sugar, flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, egg, sugar, flour, butter. 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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