Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Almond Creams
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream
Boil sugar and water until it reaches the cream stage.
When partially stirred, add the chopped almonds.
Treat the mixture as plain cream.
Shape and serve
Once well molded, cut into squares or bars.
Optionally, flavor with chocolate.
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.
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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
- Sugar
- Forms the sugar syrup that crystallizes into a smooth, creamy, sweet mass when cooled and worked.
- Blanched almonds
- Add body, nutty flavor and a fine texture to the cream.
The step that matters
Boil to the cream stage, then stir. Sugar syrup stirred while still hot can form large crystals, leaving the cream grainy instead of smooth. Cooking to the right stage controls how firm the cream sets.
“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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