Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Almond Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the almond paste
Blanch and beat the sweet and bitter almonds in a mortar with 1 teaspoon of water to prevent oiling.
Make the cream
Combine the almond paste with 1 quart of cream and the juice of 3 lemons, sweetening to taste.
Whisk the mixture until frothy.
Strain the froth through a sieve and fill glasses with the liquid and froth.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,130 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Sweet almonds
- Provide the main almond flavour and the body of the paste.
- Cream
- Supplies fat and richness, giving the drink a smooth, creamy texture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the richness of the cream.
The step that matters
Beating the almonds with water. Adding a little water while pounding the almonds keeps their oils dispersed in the paste. Without it, the oil can separate and make the mixture greasy and grainy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, cream, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, cream, sugar. 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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