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Dessert

Almond Rochu

A sweet almond confection made with candied peel, flour, sugar, spices, and egg whites, baked into crisp balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Rochu

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the almond mixture

  1. Blanch and dry the sweet and bitter almonds.

  2. Chop the almonds very fine with the candied lemon peel, orange peel, and citron.

  3. Add the flour, sugar, mixed mace and cinnamon, and beaten egg whites; mix well.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the mixture into balls the size of large marbles.

  2. Place the balls on wafer paper and bake for 20 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until crisp but not too deeply colored.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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 body of ground nut texture and a mild, rich almond flavor.
Egg whites
Bind the mixture together and help the rochu set and turn crisp when baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown and crisp during baking.
Flour
Adds a small amount of structure so the mixture holds its shape.
Candied lemon peel
Adds concentrated citrus aroma and a chewy, sweet-tart bite.

The step that matters

Baking until crisp but not too deeply colored. Sugar and almonds brown quickly in the oven, so over-baking can turn the rochu bitter and hard. Pulling them once they are crisp but lightly colored keeps the flavor clean and the texture tender-crisp.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, lemon, orange, flour, sugar, cinnamon, egg. 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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