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Dessert

Almond Kisses

Almond Kisses are sweet almond cookies made with egg whites, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Kisses

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Blanch, peel, and chop the almonds.

  2. Dry them on paper at the mouth of the oven.

Make the mixture

  1. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with the pinch of salt until very stiff.

  2. Gradually stir in the sugar.

  3. Then add the lemon juice and vanilla essence, mixing gently.

Pipe and bake

  1. Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe even-sized heaps onto a greased baking tin.

  2. Dredge with sugar.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until pale brown.

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 + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the kisses.
Egg whites
Whisked into a stiff foam that gives the kisses their light, airy structure.
Castor sugar
Stabilises the whisked whites and adds sweetness and browning when baked.
Lemon juice
Adds a little acidity that helps stabilise the whisked egg white foam.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites until very stiff. Under-whisked whites will not hold their shape and the heaps may spread flat in the oven. Whites should be whisked in a clean, grease-free bowl, since fat prevents the foam from reaching full volume.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, egg, sugar, vanilla. 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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