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 ↓
Burnt Almonds
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sugar syrup
Combine the sugar and water in a round-bottomed saucepan and set it on the side of the fire to dissolve, stirring with a wooden spatula.
Once it begins to boil, gently add the shelled almonds, which should be rubbed clean to remove any dust.
Stir the almonds gently over low heat until they make a crackling noise.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir quickly until the sugar granulates like sand.
Transfer the almonds to a coarse sieve, separating any that stick together.
Sift off the loose sugar.
Keep the almonds warm by covering them with a clean cloth.
Coat and dry
Add the sifted sugar back to the saucepan with 1 lb of granulated sugar and ½ cup of water, dissolve slowly, and boil to the 'soft ball' stage.
Quickly add the almonds one at a time, stirring quickly to avoid them sticking together.
Place them on a sieve to dry.
If the almonds are insufficiently coated, repeat the coating process.
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.
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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
- Demerara sugar
- Melts and recrystallises into a sandy, crunchy coating around the almonds.
- Valencia almonds
- Provide the nut centre that is coated and toasted by the sugar.
The step that matters
Stirring the almonds into the syrup at soft ball stage. Stir quickly so the almonds separate as the sugar crystallises. If the syrup is too cool or stirring stalls, the almonds clump together and the coating stays thin or uneven.
“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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