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Orgeat Syrup

A sweet almond syrup made by boiling almonds, pounding them, and mixing with water and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Orgeat Syrup

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 ↓

Orgeat Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Boil the sweet and bitter almonds in water until the skins peel off easily.

  2. Transfer the almonds to cold water.

  3. Pick the almonds and place them in fresh water.

  4. Pound the almonds in a clean marble mortar until smooth.

Make and bottle the syrup

  1. Combine the almond paste with spring water and sugar, stirring until dissolved.

  2. Bottle the syrup once it is completely cool and seal well.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and a rich, thick body once pounded into paste.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated, aromatic almond flavour in small amounts.
Spring water
Dissolves the sugar and carries the almond paste to form a pourable syrup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and thickens the liquid into a syrup.

The step that matters

Boiling the almonds until the skins slip off. Boiling loosens the skins so they peel away easily, but overcooking softens the almonds and can make the paste mushy and less smooth when pounded.

“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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