Name: Wafers, Almond
Ingredients: equal quantities of dry flour and sifted sugar; 2 well-beaten eggs for every 4 tablespoons of mixture; 2.5 ounces chopped almonds or pistachio nuts; a small quantity of fresh yeast; enough cream to make a thick batter

Why it works: Flour and almond 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 ↓

Wafers, Almond

Ingredients

equal quantities of dry flour and sifted sugar
2 well-beaten eggs for every 4 tablespoons of mixture
2.5 ounces chopped almonds or pistachio nuts
a small quantity of fresh yeast
enough cream to make a thick batter

Directions

Make the batter

Mix equal parts of dry flour and sifted sugar thoroughly.
For every 4 tablespoons of this mixture, add 2 well-beaten eggs, 2.5 ounces of chopped almonds or pistachio nuts, a small amount of fresh yeast, and enough cream to create a thick batter.
Let the mixture settle.

Bake

Bake the wafers as usual.

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.

Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,130 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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: Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Fresh yeast: Adds a small amount of lift so the wafers are lighter.
Chopped almonds or pistachio nuts: Add flavour and a bit of texture to the wafers.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, loosening the flour and sugar into a thick batter.

“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.