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Cream Almonds

Almonds coated in a sugar syrup and set to dry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cream Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Warm the almonds in a clean kettle until hot and keep them warm.

  2. In a separate pot, cook the sugar and water to 242°F (117°C).

  3. Remove the pot from heat and add the vanilla extract.

Coat the almonds

  1. Pour ½ pint of the syrup over the almonds while stirring with a small spatula.

  2. Add a handful of powdered sugar over the almonds and stir well.

  3. Continue adding syrup gradually while stirring until half of it is used.

  4. Revolve the kettle in a circular motion as your helper pours on the syrup.

  5. Once all syrup is added, sift off any loose sugar and place the almonds in crystal pans.

Set and dry

  1. Cook additional syrup to 95°F (35°C) and pour it over the almonds while hot.

  2. Let the almonds set for 3 hours, then drain off the syrup and allow to dry for several hours.

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 + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Jordan almonds
Provide the core that the sugar coating is built around.
Sugar
Forms the crisp, glossy shell as the syrup crystallizes on the almonds.
Water
Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked into syrup.
Powdered sugar
Starts the coating by giving the syrup fine crystals to cling to.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 242°F (117°C). Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration for the coating to set into a firm, crisp shell. Too low a temperature leaves it sticky, and too high a temperature makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Macadamia nutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla. 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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