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Almond Pyramids

Almond Pyramids are small almond cakes baked into pyramids.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour 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 ↓

Almond Pyramids

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the paste

  1. Blanch and finely chop the almonds.

  2. In a basin, mix the chopped almonds with the sugar and flour.

  3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the almond mixture to form a stiff paste.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into small pyramids on a greased baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 10 minutes.

  3. Cool on a sieve.

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 + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the pyramids.
Egg whites
Whisked to stiffness, they bind the paste and help the pyramids hold their shape.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pyramids brown in the oven.
Flour
Adds a little structure so the almond paste holds together while baking.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated almond aroma.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be whisked stiff but folded in gently so the air is kept and the paste stays firm enough to hold its pyramid shape. Overmixing deflates the whites and makes the pieces spread in the oven.

“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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