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Dessert

Almond Fritters

A confection of almonds coated in a caramelized sugar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Almond Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a copper kettle, combine glucose, sugar, grease, and water.

  2. Heat the mixture on a furnace, stirring with a paddle until it boils.

  3. Insert a thermometer; when it reaches 240°F (115°C), remove from heat.

Candy the almonds

  1. Add almonds and salt, reduce heat slightly, and stir to prevent nuts from breaking.

  2. Cook until the nuts crack and the mixture begins to smoke.

  3. Pour the mixture into a large sieve set over a greased slab to strain for 3-4 minutes.

  4. Invert the sieve to release the almonds onto the slab, scraping off any that stick.

  5. Use the strained candy for making caramels or taffy.

Shape

  1. Shape the almonds into fritters, being careful not to break them.

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. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Glucose
Keeps the sugar syrup smooth by resisting crystallization, giving a clear, even coating.
Sugar
Forms the sweet, crisp candy coating that hardens around the almonds as the syrup cooks.
Valencia almonds
Provide the nut centre and crunch that the candied coating surrounds.
Grease
Adds fat that softens the candy's texture and helps it release from the slab.

The step that matters

Stop the syrup at 240°F (115°C). Syrup temperature sets how hard the candy becomes when cooled. Taking it off heat too early leaves the coating sticky, while overcooking makes it brittle and burnt-tasting.

“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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