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 ↓
Paste for Ornamental Rout-cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Pound the almonds until finely ground, adding a few drops of orange‑flower water or plain water as needed.
Mix in the sifted sugar, flour, and egg yolks until you have a firm, smooth paste.
Transfer the paste to a basin and follow the next steps as indicated in the following articles.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Form the bulk of the paste and give it its nutty flavour and body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the paste so it stays smooth and workable.
- Flour
- Adds a little structure that helps the paste hold its shape.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the ground almonds and sugar and add richness to the paste.
The step that matters
Pound the almonds until finely ground. Almonds are rich in oil. Pounding too long or too hard can release that oil and make the paste greasy and crumbly, so stop once the texture is fine and even.
“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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