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Dessert

Almond Rocher

Almond Roché is a confection of ground almonds, candied orange rind, citron, flour, sugar, mace, cinnamon, and egg whites, baked into small balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Rocher

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 dough

  1. Finely grind the almonds, candied orange rind, and citron together.

  2. Moisten the mixture with a few drops of cold water or egg white.

  3. Add flour, sugar, mace, and cinnamon to the mixture.

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

Bake

  1. Place them on wafer paper and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  2. They should be crisp but not 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. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Blanched almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the cookie.
Candied orange rind
Adds sweet, tangy citrus aroma and moisture to the dough.
Flour
Gives the balls enough structure to hold their shape while baking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown and crisp as they bake.
Egg whites
Bind the dough and add moisture so the mixture holds together when rolled.

The step that matters

Baking until crisp but not deeply colored. Sugar browns quickly at high heat, so pulling the cookies once they are crisp and lightly colored keeps them from turning bitter while still leaving them dry enough to crisp as they cool.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, 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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