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Dessert

Almond Cream

A chilled almond custard made with sweet and bitter almonds, cream, sugar, gelatin, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Almond Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds.

  2. In a pan over medium heat, stir the almonds continually until they turn a fine yellow color. Remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Pound the cooled almonds into fine pieces.

Make the cream

  1. Add nearly boiling cream or rich milk and sugar to the almonds.

  2. Dissolve the gelatin in a little water.

  3. Mix the dissolved gelatin into the almond mixture.

  4. Place the mixture on ice.

  5. Stir until it begins to thicken and is smooth.

  6. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

  7. Pour the mixture into a mold.

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

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

  2. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main nutty flavor and body of the almond cream.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, more intense almond aroma to the cream.
Cream or rich milk
Adds fat and richness, giving the cream a smooth, soft texture.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled in a mold.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and airiness to the set cream.

The step that matters

Place the mixture on ice and stir until it begins to thicken. Gelatine sets as it cools, so the mixture must thicken evenly before the whipped cream is folded in. Cooling too long or unevenly can cause lumps or a set mass that won't fold smoothly or pour into the mold.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar. 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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