Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Almond Cookies
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.
Prepare the almonds
Blanch the almonds.
Chop the blanched almonds finely.
Let the chopped almonds dry.
Make the dough
Cream the butter in a bowl.
Add the eggs to the butter and mix well.
Combine the sugar and chopped almonds in a bowl.
Add two-thirds of the sugar–almond mixture to the butter and egg mixture.
Stir in the sifted flour and grated lemon rind until well combined.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of ⅕ inch.
Cut the rolled dough into 3-inch diamond shapes.
Top and bake
Spread egg white over the tops of the cookies.
Sprinkle the remaining sugar and almonds over the egg white.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
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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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Creams with sugar to give the dough richness and a tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add moisture and structure.
- Sifted flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookie shape.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown.
- Almonds
- Add nutty flavour and a crisp texture to the cookies.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown. Almond cookies are fragile when underbaked and can turn bitter or dark if overbaked. Watching for an even golden colour signals that the sugars have caramelised and the cookies have set.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, egg, almond):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, egg, almond. 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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