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Pralines

Almonds coated in clarified syrup and sugar, repeatedly boiled and cooled to produce hard, crisp pralines.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pralines

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Rub the almonds in a clean cloth to remove dust.

  2. Sift the almonds through a coarse sieve to remove dust.

Coat the almonds

  1. In a small saucepan, bring the clarified syrup to a boil over medium heat.

  2. Once boiling, add the almonds and essence, stirring gently with a wooden spoon.

  3. Lift and turn the almonds to coat them in sugar.

  4. Remove from heat when the almonds start to crack.

  5. When the sugar appears sandy, stop stirring.

  6. Spread the almonds on a dry baking sheet to cool.

  7. Pick out the coated almonds.

Build the hard coating

  1. Return the leftover sugar to the saucepan with another ½ cup of syrup.

  2. Add a few drops of carmine or cochineal.

  3. Boil until the sugar reaches a small crack stage.

  4. Add the coated almonds back into the pan.

  5. Stir gently for another sugar coating.

  6. Repeat the coating process one or two more times until the pralines are hard and crisp.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. 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

Almonds
Form the core of the praline and provide the crunchy, nutty bite once coated.
Sugar
Forms the crisp, hard candy coating as it cooks and crystallises around the almonds.
Clarified syrup
Dissolves and carries the sugar, so it can be cooked into a smooth syrup for coating.

The step that matters

Stopping the coating at the sandy stage. Once sugar turns sandy, it has crystallised, so stirring further makes it grainy rather than smooth. Stopping at this point lets crystals form an even, dry coating on the almonds, and later boiling to a small crack stage produces the hard, crisp shell.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sugar. 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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