Why it works: Almond and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Almond Cakes
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease small tins with butter.
Finely pound the sweet and bitter almonds with a little grated sugar.
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the pounded almonds, remaining sugar, beaten egg whites, and ground rice. Mix until well combined.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into the tins and bake until golden.
Let cool before serving.
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 + ricetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,456 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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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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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 nutty body and flavour of the cakes.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a deeper, almost sharp almond aroma to the cakes.
- Egg whites
- Bind the mixture and help the cakes rise and set as they bake.
- Grated sugar
- Sweetens the cakes and helps them brown as they bake.
- Ground rice
- Adds body and a slightly firm, crumbly texture to the cakes.
The step that matters
Pounding the almonds finely. If the almonds are left coarse, the batter becomes uneven and gritty, and the cakes bake with an unpleasant texture. Fine, even pounding lets the almond oils and flavour distribute evenly through the batter.
“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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