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Dessert

Tourte a LA Frangipane

A pastry shell filled with almond-based frangipane cream, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Tourte a LA Frangipane

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the case

  1. Roll out the pastry to about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Place a 6‑inch flan or pastry ring on a baking tin and lightly butter it.

  3. Line the ring with the pastry, notching the edges with a knife and pricking the base with a fork.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the pastry with frangipane cream.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Finish and serve

  1. Dust with caster or icing sugar and glaze.

  2. Serve hot or cold.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  3. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Set the filling and add richness and a smooth, custard-like body.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and softness to the filling as it bakes.
Ground almonds
Give the frangipane its dense, moist texture and nutty flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, melting texture.
Flour
Thickens the filling and gives it structure as it sets.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the surface turn golden in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until golden. The egg and cream filling sets with heat. Underbaked, it stays runny in the centre; overbaked, it dries and turns grainy. Pricking the pastry base lets steam escape so it does not bubble up under the filling.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

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