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Dessert

Pralines

A confection of toasted almonds, candied orange flowers, egg whites, and caster sugar baked into crisp cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pralines

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch and bake the almonds until rich brown, being careful not to burn them.

  2. Pound the almonds with the candied orange flowers, moistening with the egg whites.

  3. Beat well and gradually work in the caster sugar.

Shape and bake

  1. Lay the mixture in oval cakes on wafer paper.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until fairly crisp.

  3. Garnish with crystallized orange flowers if desired.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor, and their oils help bind the paste.
Egg whites
Moisten the pounded almonds so they hold together as a paste.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the pralines and helps them set crisp as they bake.
Candied orange flowers
Add sweet, floral citrus aroma and flavor to the almond paste.

The step that matters

Baking the almonds to rich brown. Almonds toast unevenly and scorch quickly, and burnt almonds taste bitter and harsh. Browning them gently, with close attention, develops nutty flavor without bitterness.

Swap the orange

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

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

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