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Burnt Almonds

A sweet treat made by caramelizing almonds and sugar until the sugar cracks and the almonds brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Burnt Almonds

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 Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Sift the dust from the almonds.

  2. Combine the almonds and sugar in a pot over medium heat.

  3. Boil until the sugar cracks.

  4. Remove from heat and stir with a spatula to grain the sugar.

  5. Transfer the mixture to a coarse wire sieve to remove loose sugar and separate any clumped almonds.

  6. Return the almonds to the pot and stir over heat until browned.

  7. Boil the grained sugar again until it cracks.

  8. Add the almonds and stir with the spatula.

  9. Sift and separate the almonds again.

  10. Optionally repeat for a third coating.

  11. If desired, add prepared cochineal while boiling to color the sugar.

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.

  1. Almond + sugartop 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

Almonds
Form the core of the confection, becoming crisp and toasted as the sugar coats them.
Sugar
Cooks into a crackling coating that hardens around the almonds and grains when stirred.

The step that matters

Boil until the sugar cracks. Sugar must reach the right temperature to form a brittle coating. Too little heat leaves it sticky, while too much heat scorches it and turns it bitter.

“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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