Why it works: Filbert and sugar work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 143 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Preparation of the Filberts
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filberts
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Spread the shelled filberts on a pan.
Dry them in the oven for 3 to 5 minutes.
Wrap the warm filberts in a towel.
Rub briskly to remove the skins.
Make the praline
Melt the powdered sugar over low heat until it turns light brown.
Add the filberts to the melted sugar.
Let them sit on the stove for 1 minute.
Pour the mixture onto a lightly oiled pie plate to prevent sticking.
Cool the mixture.
Crush and sift
Crush the mixture with a pestle until fine.
Sift the crushed mixture through a sieve.
Crush any remaining particles until fully sifted.
Set aside the fine mixture in a bowl until needed.
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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Filbert + sugartop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together143 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Filberts
- Provide the main nutty flavour and the bulk of the finished crushed mixture.
- Powdered sugar
- Melts and caramelises to coat the filberts and add sweetness and a browned flavour.
The step that matters
Melting the sugar until light brown. Sugar browns quickly over heat and can burn, turning bitter. Cooking it over low heat and stopping at light brown gives caramel flavour without bitterness.
“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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