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Dessert

Almond Biscuits

A sweet biscuit made with almonds, lemon peel, eggs, sugar, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the paste

  1. Blanch and pound the almonds, then add the grated lemon peel.

  2. Beat the eggs.

  3. Mix the beaten eggs into the almond mixture.

  4. Combine well to form a stiff paste, adding a little water if needed.

Shape and top

  1. Roll out the mixture thinly and cut into small cakes with a pastry cutter.

  2. Mix the chopped almonds and sifted sugar with the beaten egg white to form a paste.

  3. Sprinkle the almond mixture over the cakes.

  4. Sprinkle sugar on top.

Bake

  1. Bake on buttered tins in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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 + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 body and nutty flavour of the biscuit.
Eggs
Bind the almond mixture into a paste that holds its shape.
Egg white
Binds the chopped almond and sugar topping so it stays on the cakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the topping caramelise lightly while baking.

The step that matters

Forming the stiff paste. Almond paste is easily made too wet or too dry. Too much liquid makes the cakes spread and lose their shape, while too little leaves them crumbly. Add water only a little at a time.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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