Name: Burnt Almonds
Ingredients: 2 pounds Jordan or Valencia almonds; 6 cups sugar; 1 quart water; 2 pounds sugar (for second syrup); a pinch of cinnamon; powdered gum-arabic (for gloss); confectioner's glazine (for final coating)

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Burnt Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup and candy the almonds

Sort the almonds by size.
In a kettle, mix 6 cups of sugar and 1 quart of water. Heat until it reaches 240°F (115°C).
Add the almonds and stir gently to avoid breaking them. Cook until the candy granulates.
Remove from heat and stir until the sugar is dry and the almonds are separated.
Pour into a coarse sieve to shake off excess sugar.

Repeat the syrup coating

Dissolve the sugar in the kettle with just enough water and heat until dissolved.
Cook the syrup to 250°F (120°C), then add the almonds and stir until granulated. Shake off excess sugar in a sieve.
Repeat the syrup process with 2 pounds of sugar and just enough water, cooking to 250°F (120°C).
Add a pinch of cinnamon to half of the remaining syrup, cook to 250°F (120°C), and add the almonds, stirring until granulated.
Repeat with the remaining syrup.

Gloss and dry

For a glossy finish, mix powdered gum-arabic with water and coat the nuts. Stir in the kettle until coated.
Place the coated almonds on trays to dry.
Once dry, add enough confectioner's glazine to dampen slightly and place back on trays to dry again.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Syrup + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together990 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Almonds: The nut core that the sugar coating is built around.
Sugar: Forms the crunchy, granulated candy coating on the almonds.
Water: Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked into syrup.
Gum-arabic: Gives the coated almonds a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 250°F (120°C) before adding the almonds. Syrup must reach the right concentration to crystallize into a dry, granulated coating. If it is undercooked the coating stays sticky, and if it is overcooked it can turn hard or caramelize.