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Dessert

Frangipane

A custard-like almond filling made with eggs, flour, lemon rind, powdered sugar, orange flower water, macaroons, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Frangipane

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add flour, lemon rind, powdered sugar, orange flower water, and broken macaroons.

  3. Pour the mixture into a saucepan with milk over low heat.

  4. Stir continuously for 20 minutes until thickened.

Fill and bake

  1. Line patty pans with puff pastry.

  2. Pour the mixture into the lined pans and bake for 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Set when heated, giving the filling its body and structure.
Flour
Starch thickens the liquid as it heats, helping the filling hold its shape.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs set into a smooth custard.
Macaroons
Add sweetness and a tender, crumbly texture to the filling.
Lemon rind
Adds bright citrus aroma and a touch of acidity.
Orange flower water
Adds a floral aroma that rounds out the citrus.

The step that matters

Stir continuously over low heat. Egg proteins set at a gentle heat, and if the mixture gets too hot or stands still, the eggs can curdle or scramble. Constant stirring keeps the heat even so the custard thickens smoothly.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, lemon, sugar, milk. 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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