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Almond Comfits

Almond comfits are almonds coated in a gum and syrup mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and syrup work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 746 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Almond Comfits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Boil the almonds in water to peel them.

  2. Transfer the almonds to cold water, then place them on sieves to dry in the air.

  3. Once nearly dry, finish drying them in a stove.

Make the gum and syrup

  1. Dissolve gum Senegal in water and strain it through a silk sieve.

  2. Boil the syrup to a strong thread and add 2 tablespoons of gum Senegal for body.

  3. Remove the syrup from heat and keep it warm on a charcoal brazier covered with ashes.

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 + syruptop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together746 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Jordan almonds
Form the core of the comfits, which are coated in layers of sugar.
Gum senegal
Adds body to the syrup and helps it build an even, smooth coating.
Syrup
Forms the sugar shell that hardens around each almond as it dries.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup to a strong thread. If the syrup is under-boiled it stays too wet and won't set into a firm shell; if over-boiled it crystallises or cracks. Keeping it warm prevents premature crystallisation during coating.

“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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