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Dessert

Burnt Almonds, or Almond Prawlings in Red

A sweet confection of almonds caramelized with sugar, water, liquid carmine, and orange‑flower water.

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

Burnt Almonds, or Almond Prawlings in Red

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the almonds to remove dust.

  2. Dissolve the sugar in a little water and add the almonds.

Make the candied almonds

  1. Boil the almonds with the sugar until they crack.

  2. Remove from heat and stir until they form a sandy texture.

  3. Sift to remove loose sugar.

Caramelize and finish

  1. Return the sugar to the pan with a little water and boil to caramel.

  2. Add the almonds and a little liquid carmine, stirring until coated with sugar.

  3. Sprinkle with orange-flower water for flavor and shine.

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

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

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Almonds
Form the crunchy, nutty core that the sugar coating clings to.
Sugar
Crystallizes into a sandy coating and then caramelizes to give the glossy, sweet shell.
Liquid carmine
Adds red colour to the sugar coating.
Orange-flower water
Adds a floral aroma to the finished almonds.

The step that matters

Boil the sugar to caramel. Sugar darkens quickly once it passes its melting point, so it can scorch and turn bitter if left unattended. Removing it at the right colour keeps the coating sweet and evenly glossy.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, 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.

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