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 ↓
Fine Almond Cake
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 almond paste
Blanch, dry, and pound the fresh Jordan almonds to a fine paste.
Add the bitter almonds and mix well.
Make the batter
In a bowl, cream the softened butter and gradually beat in the powdered sugar.
Slowly incorporate the almond paste into the butter mixture.
Add the grated lemon rind and mix until fully combined.
Fold in the flour gently until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.
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.
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Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter and flour 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
What each ingredient does
- Jordan almonds
- Provide the main almond flavor and bulk of the cake's texture when ground to a paste.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness by carrying fat through the batter.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and dissolves easily into the creamed butter.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
- Lemons
- Add bright aroma and acidity from the grated rind.
The step that matters
Fold in the flour gently until just combined. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense instead of tender.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, butter, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, butter, flour. 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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