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Almond Filling

A creamy almond mixture made with sour cream, egg yolks, sugar, corn starch, milk, and chopped almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 485 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the sour cream in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and powdered sugar together.

  3. Dissolve the corn starch in a little milk and add it to the egg mixture.

  4. Combine the egg mixture with the scalded cream and cook over low heat, stirring until thick.

Finish the filling

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped almonds.

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. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

  5. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 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

Sour cream
Provides rich dairy body and moisture for the filling.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling as they set with gentle heat, adding richness.
Corn starch
Thickens the liquid when heated, giving the filling a smooth, stable texture.
Chopped almonds
Add nutty flavor and a firm, crunchy texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring until thick. Egg yolks can curdle and turn grainy if overheated. Gentle heat with constant stirring lets the starch and yolks thicken the custard smoothly.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Beansfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar, corn, 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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