Skip to main content
Drink

Orgeat

A sweet almond syrup flavored with orange flower water, made from almonds, milk, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Orgeat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Blend the sweet and bitter almonds in a mortar until finely ground.

  2. Add the orange flower water, milk, and sugar, and mix well.

  3. Strain the mixture to remove solids.

  4. Optionally, add a little brandy for flavor.

Serve

  1. To serve, dissolve 1 tablespoon of the mixture in a tumbler of water.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  2. Orange + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavor and body of the syrup.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, intense almond aroma that balances the sweetness.
Orange flower water
Adds a floral aroma that complements the almond flavor.
Milk
Carries the almond flavor and gives the syrup a creamy, opaque body.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Straining the mixture. Ground almonds leave solids that stay suspended; thorough straining removes them so the syrup is smooth and clear rather than gritty.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, milk, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Orange SyrupOrange Syrup47 recipesOrange Water IceOrange Water Ice28 recipesAlmond MilkAlmond Milk18 recipesVegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipes