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Almond Filling No. X

A sweet almond filling made from almond paste, crushed almonds, sugar, milk, butter, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Almond Filling No. X

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Rub the almond paste soft with the eggs.

  2. Add sugar, butter, and almonds.

  3. Heat with the milk and stir until it thickens.

Cool and use

  1. Let cool, flavor with vanilla, and use for layer cakes and tart filling.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Almond paste
Provides the main almond flavor and a dense, smooth body to the filling.
Eggs
Soften the paste and set as they heat, thickening the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the filling a smooth, soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, creamier mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds liquid that the heated eggs thicken into a spreadable filling.
Browned and crushed almonds
Add toasted almond flavor and a slightly crunchy texture.

The step that matters

Heat with the milk and stir until it thickens. The eggs thicken by coagulating when heated. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep the mixture smooth, while overheating can curdle the eggs into lumps.

Swap the almond

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

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

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