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 ↓
Salt Almonds
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Shell, blanch, and dry the almonds.
Cook and season
Heat the olive oil or butter in a pan.
Add the almonds and cook until golden brown, shaking the pan constantly.
Drain the almonds, dry them on soft paper, and sprinkle with fine salt.
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.
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Almond + olivetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Form the crunchy, toasted-flavored body of the snack once browned in fat.
- Olive oil or butter
- Conducts heat evenly and carries flavor, helping the almonds brown in the pan.
The step that matters
Cooking the almonds until golden brown while shaking the pan. Sugars and proteins on the almond skins brown quickly near the end of cooking, so the almonds can scorch soon after turning golden. Constant shaking keeps heat even and prevents burnt patches, while the nuts still need to be fully colored for good flavor.
“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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