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Dessert

Almond Cream

A sweet almond custard made with almonds, egg whites, powdered sugar, milk, and topped with granulated sugar and whole almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch and finely pound the almonds with a little water.

  2. Beat the egg whites until frothy, then mix in the powdered sugar.

Make the cream

  1. Add the milk to the egg mixture and combine well.

  2. Gently boil the mixture over low heat until reduced by one-quarter.

  3. Stir in the almond paste and boil for an additional 5 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Flavor to taste, then let cool.

  2. Once cooled, sprinkle thickly with granulated sugar and garnish with whole almonds.

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 + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Almonds
Provide the bulk, nutty flavor and richness of the cream.
Egg whites
Foam and set to give the cream body and structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the mixture and dissolves smoothly into the whites.
Milk
Supplies liquid that thickens into a richer cream as it reduces.

The step that matters

Reducing the mixture over low heat. Gentle heat lets the liquid evaporate slowly so the cream thickens without scorching or curdling the egg whites. Boiling too hard can cause the proteins to tighten and separate, leaving a grainy texture.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Cocoafits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk. 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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