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Dessert

Almond Cakes

Almond cakes made with butter, almonds, spices, sugar, flour, and brandy, baked at 300°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Almond Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

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 the dough

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Add the beaten egg and finely chopped almonds, mixing well.

  3. Incorporate the remaining ingredients into the mixture.

Shape and bake

  1. Toss the dough on a floured surface and roll it to ¼ inch thickness.

  2. Cut out shapes using a round cutter dipped in flour.

  3. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until delicately browned.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + lemontop 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cakes a tender, rich texture.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds moisture and structure as it sets.
Blanched almonds
Provide the main nutty flavor and body of the cakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps it brown during baking.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cut shapes together.

The step that matters

Bake in a cool oven until delicately browned. Baking at a low temperature dries the cakes gently without over-browning the sugar and butter. Too hot an oven can scorch the edges before the centers set, so watch color closely.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, nutmeg, almond, lemon, sugar, brandy. 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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