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Dessert

Almond Rocks

A sweet confection made from chopped almonds, almond flour, saccharine, water, and stiffly whipped egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour 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 Rocks

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the saccharine tablets in the water.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped almonds and almond flour.

  3. Fold in the dissolved saccharine and the stiffly whipped egg white.

Bake and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) until set.

  3. Let cool before serving.

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. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Egg white
Whipped to stiffness, it traps air and gives the rocks a light, airy structure as they set.
Chopped almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the rocks.
Almond flour
Fills the gaps between the chopped almonds, helping the mixture hold together.
Saccharine
Supplies the sweetness in place of sugar.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg white. Stiffly whipped egg white holds air that gives lift; overmixing or deflating it while folding makes the rocks dense and flat. Fold gently, just until combined.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Milletfits about as well
  3. Macadamia nutfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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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