Name: Another Wat to Make Almond Paste
Ingredients: ½ pound bitter almonds, blanched; 1 pound sweet almonds, blanched; 1 pound honey; orange-flower water or rose water

Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Another Wat to Make Almond Paste

Ingredients

½ pound bitter almonds, blanched
1 pound sweet almonds, blanched
1 pound honey
orange-flower water or rose water

Directions

Finely pound and mix the bitter and sweet almonds with honey and enough orange-flower or rose water to achieve a paste.
Transfer the mixture into small pots, then pour a little more orange-flower or rose water on top.
Seal the pots tightly with paper.

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.

Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Honey + orangetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,068 recipes

Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).
Almond + honeytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,069 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds: Form the bulk of the paste, giving body and a mild, sweet flavour.
Bitter almonds: Add a sharper, more pronounced almond flavour that balances the sweetness.
Honey: Sweetens the paste and helps bind the ground almonds into a smooth, cohesive mass.

“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.