Why it works: Almond and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Almond Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream
Mix Flor-ador and sugar with a little cold milk.
Boil the remaining milk and pour it over the Flor-ador mixture.
Return to the saucepan and boil gently for 5 minutes.
Set and decorate
Add almond essence and 2 oz of blanched, roughly chopped almonds.
Pour into a wetted china mold and let it stand until cold and firm.
Turn out the cream and decorate with the remaining blanched almonds, cut lengthwise and arranged on top.
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 + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cream thickens and sets in.
- Castor sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the flavour of the milk and almonds.
- Almonds
- Add nutty flavour and a slight crunch to the set cream.
The step that matters
Pour into a wetted china mold. A damp mold lets the cream release cleanly when turned out. Without wetting, the cream can stick to the mold and tear or lose its shape.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk):
- Cocoafits about as well
- Almondthe original
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Peanutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk. 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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