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Almond Paste

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Paste

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

  1. Make the almond paste for inside the cake by mixing ½ cup castor sugar, ⅓ cup ground almonds, and 1 egg until combined.

  2. Sift flour and cornflour together.

  3. Clean the currants and separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs.

  4. Cream the butter and ½ cup castor sugar together until light and fluffy.

  5. Beat in the egg yolks, then stir in the currants and sifted flour mixture.

  6. Gently fold in the stiffly whipped egg whites.

  7. Pour half of the mixture into a greased and lined cake tin.

  8. Shape the almond paste for inside the cake into a round slightly smaller than the cake tin and place it in the tin.

  9. Cover with the remaining cake mixture and bake for 2 to 3 hours at 350°F (175°C).

  10. Once cool, make the almond paste for outside the cake using ¾ cup castor sugar, ⅔ cup ground almonds, and 1 egg.

  11. Shape about three-quarters of the almond paste into a round and cover the top of the cake.

  12. Form the rest into small balls and arrange them on top of the cake.

  13. Place in a cool oven (300°F or 150°C) to set and slightly 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 + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, almond, egg, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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