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Dessert

Almond Cream Pie

A pie made with almond cream, sugar, egg whites, vanilla or nutmeg, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of almond butter in 1 pint of water, adding the water slowly.

  2. Add ½ cup of granulated sugar and let the mixture stand.

  3. Beat the whites of 3 eggs to a stiff froth.

  4. Combine the beaten egg whites with the almond cream and sugar mixture, and beat thoroughly.

  5. Flavor with vanilla or sift grated nutmeg on top.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake.

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. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Whites beaten to a stiff froth add air and help the filling set into a light custard.
Almond butter
Gives the almond cream its characteristic nutty flavor.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to a stiff froth. Under-beaten whites will not hold air, so the filling bakes denser and less airy. Over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and can weep during baking. Stop when the whites hold firm, glossy peaks.

“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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