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Almond Icing

A sweet almond-based icing made with ground almonds, icing sugar, flavorings, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Almond Icing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound the almonds well.

  2. Add the icing sugar, flavorings, and enough slightly beaten egg white to mix to a firm consistency.

  3. Alternatively, use cooked yolks or whole eggs instead of whites.

  4. To cook the yolks, stir them over hot water until thickened.

  5. Mix all ingredients until well combined.

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 + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Rum + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together728 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  4. Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Ground almonds
Provide the bulk and nutty flavour that form the body of the paste.
Icing sugar
Adds sweetness and dry bulk that stiffens the paste with the liquid.
Eggs
Add moisture and bind the almonds and sugar into a cohesive, firm mixture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg. Add the slightly beaten egg a little at a time. The egg supplies moisture, so too much makes the mixture slack and sticky, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly. Stop once it reaches a firm consistency.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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