Name: Les Petits Choux Pralines
Ingredients: choux pastry; sweet almonds, finely chopped; pounded sugar

Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Les Petits Choux Pralines

Ingredients

choux pastry
sweet almonds, finely chopped
pounded sugar

Directions

Prepare

Prepare choux pastry as directed.
Place the choux on a baking sheet.

Top and bake

Mix chopped almonds with a little pounded sugar.
Sprinkle the almond mixture over the choux.
Bake the choux until golden.

Garnish

Garnish with sweetmeats as desired.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Choux pastry: Steam from its moisture makes it puff and set into a hollow shell.
Sweet almonds: Add crunch and nutty flavour to the topping.
Pounded sugar: Sweetens the topping and helps it brown and crisp in the oven.

“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.