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Salted Almonds

A simple roasted almond snack seasoned with olive oil or butter and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,875 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Salted Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them and let sit for a few minutes until the skins slip off easily.

  2. Rub the almonds dry with a cloth.

  3. Coat the almonds with olive oil or melted butter, using about 2 teaspoons of oil per cup of nuts.

Roast and salt

  1. Spread the almonds on an agateware dish and brown them in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Watch closely and stir to prevent burning.

  3. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt while roasting.

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 + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main nut body that toasts and browns into a crunchy snack.
Olive oil or melted butter
Coats the almonds so the salt sticks and they brown evenly with a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Watch closely and stir while roasting. Almonds have a high sugar and oil content, so they can go from golden to burnt quickly. Stirring spreads heat evenly so the nuts brown uniformly without scorching at the edges.

“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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