Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Almond Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a saucepan, combine the thin cream, powdered sugar, pounded sweet and bitter almonds, and cinnamon stick.
Stir over low heat until it boils, then continue stirring until nearly cold.
Remove the cinnamon stick and add the beaten egg yolks, rose water, and brandy.
Stir over low heat until it thickens, but do not let it boil.
Serve
Serve in custard glasses.
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.
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Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,465 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,199 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Thin cream
- Forms the liquid base that the custard sets from.
- Sweet almonds
- Add nutty flavour and body to the cream.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they gently set with heat.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly into the cream.
The step that matters
Thicken the custard without boiling. Egg yolks set at low temperatures, but boiling can curdle them and leave the custard grainy. Stir gently over low heat until it thickens and stop before it boils.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, almond, egg, rose, brandy):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Cinnamonthe original
- Allspicefits less well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, almond, egg, rose, brandy. 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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