Skip to main content
Dessert

Barley Sugar, and Burnt Almonds

A confection of barley sugar and burnt almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Barley Sugar, and Burnt Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Make the barley sugar

  1. Break the sugar into small lumps.

  2. Boil the sugar lumps with water in a saucepan.

  3. Skim the mixture until it resembles glue.

  4. Test the mixture by dropping it into cold water to check for brittleness.

  5. Add lemon juice and essence to the mixture.

  6. Boil the mixture once.

  7. Cool the bottom of the pan in cold water.

  8. Pour the mixture onto a buttered marble slab.

  9. Shape the mixture on the slab into a lump.

  10. Once cool enough to handle, cut the lump into egg-sized pieces.

  11. Roll the pieces into sticks.

  12. Twist the sticks slightly.

  13. Place the sticks on an oiled sheet to cool and stiffen.

  14. Sift sugar over the sticks.

Make the burnt almonds

  1. Scald the almonds in hot water to remove skins.

  2. Dry and warm the almonds.

  3. Boil sugar with water until it forms large pearls.

  4. Add cochineal and vanilla to the sugar mixture if using.

  5. Stir in the almonds gently to coat them with the sugar mixture.

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 + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Fine loaf sugar
Forms the glassy, brittle structure of the barley sugar when boiled and cooled.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that helps prevent the sugar from recrystallising into grainy texture.
Almonds
Provide crunch and nutty flavour once coated in the sugar syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the sugar to the brittle stage. Sugar must reach the correct high temperature to set hard and brittle when cooled; under-boiled mixture stays sticky, while over-boiling can scorch and darken it.

Swap the vanilla

The recipe marks vanilla as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, butter, almond):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, butter, almond. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes