Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Almond Caramels
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the sugar in a saucepan without water until melted. Remove from heat.
Quickly add the almonds.
Take each almond out separately.
Place on waxed or buttered paper.
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.
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Melts and caramelizes into the sweet, binding syrup that coats and holds the almonds together.
- Unblanched almonds
- Add nutty flavor and crunch, and are coated by the molten caramel.
The step that matters
Quickly add the almonds. Caramel thickens and sets as it cools, so the almonds must go in promptly after the sugar leaves the heat. Adding them quickly lets the syrup coat them evenly before it becomes too stiff to work with.
“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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