Why it works: Almond and sugar 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 Cream Almonds
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 250°F (120°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Sable the almonds first.
Melt the sugar in 3 or 4 batches until it reaches 250°F (120°C).
Color the sugar as desired for white or colored cream almonds.
Use a wooden paddle to add 2 or 3 charges of sugar to a copper pan before adding the almonds.
Place the almonds in a revolving pan and let them turn at moderate heat.
Pour the sugar in a fine stream; do not add more sugar when the almonds are wet and forming lumps.
Sift the almonds to remove any dust before continuing to charge at moderate heat.
Add a lump of glucose to each batch of sugar to maintain the almond's shape.
Expose the finished almonds to steam before candying or crystallizing them.
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.
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Almond + sugartop 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
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