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Dessert

Small Biscuits

Small biscuits made from egg white, castor sugar, and almond essence, baked until lightly browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond 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 ↓

Small Biscuits

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

  1. Beat the egg white to stiff peaks.

  2. Add the castor sugar and essence of almonds, mixing to a thick white paste.

  3. Cover a baking sheet with greased paper.

  4. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the paper, keeping them ½ inch apart.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until they change color.

  2. Remove from the oven and let cool.

  3. Use a knife to remove the biscuits from the paper.

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. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Egg + almondtop 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

Egg white
Whipped to stiff peaks, it traps air and gives the biscuits a light, airy structure.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the biscuits and, combined with the whipped white, helps set the mixture as it bakes.
Essence of almonds
Adds the characteristic almond aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Beating the egg white to stiff peaks. Stiff peaks hold the air that lifts the biscuits. Under-whipped whites spread flat and dense, while over-whipped whites turn dry and grainy and collapse in the oven.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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