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A Tansey

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and biscuit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 388 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

  1. Blend the cream and blanched almonds with rose and orange flower water over low heat.

  2. Once it boils, remove from heat and let it cool.

  3. Beat in the eggs, grated nutmeg, crushed Naples biscuits, and grated bread.

  4. Sweeten to taste; if too thick, add more cream and spinach juice for color.

  5. Mix well and either fry or bake.

  6. If frying, cook one side first, then flip with a dish to cook the other side.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Almond + biscuittop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together388 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Almond + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Rose + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together876 recipes

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

  4. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + rosetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, almond, rose, egg, nutmeg, biscuit, bread):

  1. Raisinabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Vanillaabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Raspberryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, almond, rose, egg, nutmeg, biscuit, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

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