Why it works: Almond and sugar 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 Comfits, or Dragees
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scald, skin, wash, wipe, and thoroughly dry the almonds in the oven.
Dissolve the gum arabic until not too thin.
Ensure all utensils are clean and ready.
Coat the almonds
Place live embers of charcoal in the chafing dish under the comfit pan.
Keep the syrup hot but not boiling near a stove fire.
Put ⅙ of the syrup and ⅙ of the dissolved gum into the sugar pan and boil to the thread degree over the stove.
Swing the comfit pan over the chafing dish and add the almonds.
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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Almond + sugartop 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
- Jordan almonds
- Form the centre of each dragee, which the sugar coating builds up around.
- Gum arabic
- Helps the syrup cling to the almonds and build an even coating.
- Loaf sugar
- Forms the hard, crisp sugar shell that covers each almond.
The step that matters
Keep the syrup hot but not boiling. Syrup that is too cool sets unevenly and coats poorly, while overheated syrup can crystallise or scorch. Steady, moderate heat lets thin layers dry and harden smoothly.
“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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