Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Almond-paste, Another Method
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and mix
Prepare the ingredients as directed in the previous method.
Work half of the sugar with the gum.
Combine the almonds with part of the remaining sugar.
Mix both together and incorporate the rest of the sugar until smooth.
Adjust and color
If the paste is not stiff enough, add more fine-sifted sugar.
For a pure white color, mix a small amount of cobalt blue powder with a drop of water before adding.
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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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fine-sifted sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, with the gum, gives it body and a stiff, workable texture.
- Pounded almonds
- Provide the main body, fat and almond flavour of the paste.
- Steeped gum-dragon
- Acts as a binder that helps the sugar and almonds hold together into a smooth, stiff paste.
The step that matters
Incorporating the sugar until smooth. Sugar must be fully worked into the almonds and gum; if it is undermixed the paste stays grainy and may not hold its shape. Adding more sugar only when the paste is too soft keeps the stiffness controlled.
“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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