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York Drops

York Almond Drops are small almond-based confections made with egg whites and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar 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 ↓

York Drops

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch and dry the almonds, then finely crush them in a mortar.

  2. Add 3 egg whites and pound them well with the almonds.

  3. Mix in the powdered sugar and the remaining 4 egg whites until well combined.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop the mixture onto paper in small drops, about the size of a pea.

  2. Place them on iron or tin plates.

  3. Bake in a warm oven (about 350°F or 175°C).

  4. Once cooled, carefully remove them from the paper.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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 flavour and the bulk of the dough.
Egg whites
Bind the almond and sugar mixture and help the drops set as they bake.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the drops and helps give them a smooth, dry-textured crumb.

The step that matters

Pounding the egg whites into the almonds. The egg whites must be fully worked into the crushed almonds so the paste is smooth and evenly bound; uneven pounding leaves lumps and drops that spread or crack unevenly in the oven.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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