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 ↓
Marzipan
Ingredients
Directions
Make the marzipan
Pound the almonds to a paste in a mortar.
Add the icing sugar, egg white, and lemon juice to the almonds.
Pound all the ingredients together until well combined.
Serve
Cut into small squares to serve or use as a filling for chocolate sweets.
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 + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Blanched almonds
- Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the paste.
- Icing sugar
- Sweetens the paste and helps it bind into a smooth, workable dough.
- Egg white
- Adds moisture and helps bind the crushed almonds and sugar together.
- Lemon juice
- Adds a touch of acidity that brightens the sweet almond flavour.
The step that matters
Pound until well combined. The almonds must be broken down finely before the sugar and egg white are added, and the mixture must be fully combined. Uneven pounding leaves gritty or crumbly patches, and the paste will not bind into a smooth, even mass.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, lemon):
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Milletfits about as well
- Almondthe original
- Chickpeafits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, lemon. 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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