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Dessert

Irish Rock

A sweet almond confection made with rose water, brandy, powdered sugar, and butter, shaped into an egg‑like form.

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

Irish Rock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds.

  2. Pick out a few sweet almonds, cut them into straw-like pieces, and blanch them in rose water.

Make the paste

  1. Pound the remaining almonds in a mortar with brandy, powdered sugar, and well-washed unsalted butter until the mixture is very white.

  2. Set the mixture in a cool place to stiffen.

Shape and decorate

  1. Dip two tablespoons in cold water.

  2. Use them to form the paste into an egg-like shape.

  3. Place the shaped paste in the bottom of a glass dish.

  4. Use a small plate or saucer turned upside down.

  5. Decorate the top with the cut almonds and green sweetmeats.

  6. Garnish with a sprig of myrtle.

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. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Rose + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together560 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Form the main body of the paste, giving it bulk and a mild, rich flavour.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, aromatic almond flavour that balances the sweetness.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the paste and dissolves smoothly into the ground almonds.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat for a smooth, cohesive paste that firms as it cools.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the paste.

The step that matters

Pound until very white. Thorough pounding breaks the almonds into a fine, even paste; under-pounding leaves grainy texture and uneven binding, so the mixture will not hold its shape when stiffened and formed.

“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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