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Dessert

Biscuit Manque

A sweet almond and orange-flavored baked biscuit with a glazed almond topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Biscuit Manque

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine sugar, egg yolks, and orange flowers; beat well.

  2. Add beaten almonds, butter, and sifted flour; mix until smooth.

  3. Whip egg whites and gently fold into the mixture.

  4. Prepare a paper case and pour in the batter.

Bake and glaze

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  2. While baking, chop almonds and mix with ⅓ cup sugar; wet with water or beaten egg white.

  3. When the cake is three‑fourths baked, glaze with the almond mixture and finish baking until golden.

Serve

  1. Cut into desired shapes and serve.

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. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg whites
Whipped to trap air, giving the cake a light, risen crumb when folded in.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter into a smooth, tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Flour
Provides the starch and structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and a moist, chewy texture to the batter and glaze.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the glaze brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that makes the cake rise; stirring or deflating them too hard knocks out this air and leaves a dense result.

Swap the orange

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

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

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