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 ↓
Graham Crackers
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, combine sugar, salt, nut meal, and water.
In another bowl, mix the two types of flour well.
Knead the mixture for ten minutes, incorporating all the flour.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough to ⅕ inch thick and cut into desired shapes.
Bake until golden.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Graham flour
- Provides the coarse, wholesome body and the characteristic nutty flavour of the crackers.
- Nut meal
- Adds fat and rich, nutty flavour, and contributes to a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crackers brown during baking.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together and can be kneaded.
The step that matters
Knead for the full ten minutes. Kneading develops gluten in the flour and gives the dough enough structure to roll thinly without tearing. Incorporating all the flour evenly keeps the texture consistent across the crackers.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar):
- Almondthe original
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Milletfits less well
- Cashew nutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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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