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Dessert

Salting Almonds

A method of blanching, oil‑soaking, and roasting almonds with 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 ↓

Salting Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsThe hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “the 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 in boiling water and then drain them.

  2. Soak the almonds in olive oil for 2 hours.

  3. Remove the almonds, letting the excess oil drip off.

Roast and season

  1. Spread the almonds in coarse sea salt on a tin plate.

  2. Place the plate in a 400°F (200°C) oven with the door slightly open.

  3. Stir the almonds frequently until they are browned 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. 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 body and crunch, which turn toasty and crisp as they dry and brown in the oven.
Olive oil
Carries the salt and conducts heat, helping the almonds brown evenly and take on a rich flavor.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the almonds and clings to the oily surface as they roast.

The step that matters

Stir the almonds frequently while roasting. Almonds near the hot tin plate can darken faster than those on top. Frequent stirring spreads the heat evenly, so the nuts brown uniformly and do not scorch before they become crisp.

“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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