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Dessert

Almond Puffa

A baked pudding of anchovies, fried almonds, and egg whites, served with sweet sauce or sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Almond Puffa

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix anchovies and fried almonds with beaten egg whites.

  2. Butter cups and fill them halfway with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the puddings for 20 minutes to 1 hour.

  2. Turn them out onto a dish and serve with sweet sauce or sifted sugar.

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

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

  5. Almond + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Eggs
Egg whites bind the mixture and set on baking, giving the puffs their light structure.
Fried almonds
Add crunch and a toasted, nutty flavour to the mixture.
Anchovies
Provide a salty, savoury depth that contrasts with the sweet serving sauce or sugar.

The step that matters

Baking time. The record gives a wide range of 20 minutes to 1 hour, so the puffs can be over- or underbaked. Egg whites set as they heat, so check for a firm, set centre and a lightly browned top before turning them out.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Sesamefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sauce. 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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