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Dessert

Almond Cream Drops

A sweet treat made by boiling almonds in cream, adding eggs and flour, then baking small drops flavored with orange or rose water.

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

Almond Cream Drops

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Boil the almonds in sweetened cream.

  2. Add the eggs and flour, then beat until smooth with orange or rose water.

Shape the drops

  1. Sift flour onto paper.

  2. Drop the mixture onto the paper like almond biscuits.

  3. Sift sugar over the drops.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Ensure the drops do not run together while baking.

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

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Almonds
Provide the main nutty flavor and body of the batter.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, setting the drops as they bake.
Flour
Gives the drops structure so they hold their shape.
Sweetened cream
Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and a light sugary crust on the surface.

The step that matters

Keep the drops apart on the paper. The soft batter spreads as it heats, so drops placed too close can fuse into one sheet. Leaving space lets each drop keep its shape while the eggs and flour set in the oven.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, cream, egg, flour, 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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