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Dessert

Almond Icing

A sweet almond icing made with ground almonds, egg whites, sugar, and corn starch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and corn 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 Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond mixture

  1. Grind the sweet and bitter almonds together until very fine.

  2. In a pan, combine the ground almonds with the beaten egg whites and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Spread and frost

  1. Spread the mixture smoothly on the cake, about 1 inch thick, half an hour before baking.

  2. For frosting, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks until the bowl can be turned upside down without the egg falling out.

  3. Slowly stir in the white sugar and corn starch for 10 to 15 minutes.

  4. Optionally, sift fine sugar and add grated coconut, fruit, or small confections for decoration.

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 + corntop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

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

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 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 and nutty flavour of the icing.
Egg whites
Bind the almond mixture and whip to stiff peaks for structure in the frosting.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and bulk to the almond base.
White sugar
Stirred into the whipped whites to add sweetness and help hold the frosting together.
Corn starch
Stabilizes the whipped frosting so it holds its shape.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites hold air only when fully whipped, and under-beaten whites collapse, leaving a loose frosting. Over-beating makes them dry and grainy. Sugar must be added slowly so the foam stays stable and glossy.

Swap the almond

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

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

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