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Dessert

Almond Cream

A chilled almond-flavored gelatin dessert made with cream, sugar, vanilla, and blanched almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in a little water, enough to cover.

  2. Whip the cream to stiff peaks.

  3. Slowly add the sugar while beating continuously.

  4. Add the dissolved gelatine, continuing to beat.

  5. Stir in the vanilla.

Set and serve

  1. When the mixture begins to thicken, fold in the finely chopped almonds.

  2. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

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 + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it forms the light, airy body of the dessert.
Gelatine
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when unmolded.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and adds body as it is beaten in.
Blanched almonds
Add nutty flavour and a bit of texture against the smooth cream.

The step that matters

Adding the dissolved gelatine. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and added while the cream is still beating, so it disperses evenly. If it is added cold or in lumps, it sets in streaks or clumps instead of a uniform, smooth set.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, vanilla):

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, vanilla. 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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