Name: Pressburger Stangelu, or Almond Sticks
Ingredients: ¼ pound butter; ¼ pound flour; ¼ pound sugar; ¼ pound ground almonds; ½ teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 egg yolks

Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Pressburger Stangelu, or Almond Sticks

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Mix the butter, flour, sugar, ground almonds, vanilla, and egg yolks rapidly.
Work the mixture like pie crust and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Shape and bake

Roll out the dough thinly and cut into strips 2 inches long and 1 inch wide.
Place the strips on a well-buttered baking pan.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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.

Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,961 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Butter: Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the dough hold together.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the dough and strips together.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the strips brown in the oven.
Ground almonds: Add nutty flavor and a tender, slightly crumbly texture.
Egg yolks: Add richness and bind the dough together.

The step that matters

Working the dough and chilling it. Mixing rapidly and chilling for 2 hours keeps the butter cold, so the dough stays firm and rolls out thinly without becoming greasy or tough.

Swap the vanilla

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillathe original
Figfits less well
Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, almond, 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.

Vanilla Ice Cream108 recipes

Almond Sponge Cake26 recipes

Almond Custard22 recipes

Almond Wafers22 recipes

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Pressburger Stangelu, or Almond Sticks