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Dessert

Almond Icing

A stiff paste of chopped almonds, icing sugar, egg whites, rum, and vanilla.

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 Icing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the finely chopped almonds and icing sugar.

  2. Add the raw egg whites, white rum, and vanilla extract.

  3. Mix until you achieve a stiff, dry paste.

  4. Use as desired.

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. Rum + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together728 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  5. Almond + rumtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

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

Finely chopped almonds
Provide the bulk and nutty flavour, forming the body of the paste.
Icing sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves into the egg whites to stiffen the mixture.
Raw egg whites
Bind the almonds and sugar together and help create a stiff, workable paste.
White rum
Adds aroma and flavour while contributing a little moisture to the paste.

The step that matters

Mixing to a stiff, dry paste. Too much liquid from the egg whites or rum makes the paste slack and sticky, while too little leaves it crumbly. Add the liquids gradually and mix until the paste holds its shape without being wet.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, rum, 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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