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Burnt Almonds

A simple caramelized almond treat made by boiling sugar and water, then roasting almonds until browned.

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

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 ↓

Burnt Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and stir until dissolved.

  2. Wash the edge of the pan with cold water.

  3. Stop stirring and let the syrup boil for about 1 minute.

Coat the almonds

  1. Add the almonds and stir vigorously until the sugar granulates and browns slightly.

  2. Once the almonds are coated, turn them out onto a sieve and separate any that are stuck together.

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. 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

Demerara sugar
Forms the syrup that crystallises and browns around the almonds, giving the coating its sweetness.
Almonds
Form the core of the confection, which the sugar coats and crystallises around.

The step that matters

Stop stirring once the syrup boils. Stirring while the syrup boils can encourage crystals to form on the pan and in the syrup, which can make the coating grainy. Letting it boil undisturbed keeps the syrup smooth until the almonds are added.

“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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