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 ↓
Grilled Almond Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Blanch the almonds and dry them thoroughly.
Boil the sugar and water until it reaches a 'hair' stage.
Add the almonds and stir occasionally until they are slightly brown.
Remove from heat and stir until the syrup turns back to sugar and clings to the nuts.
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 + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 crunchy nut base that the sugar coating clings to and browns.
- Sugar
- Melts into syrup that coats the nuts, then recrystallises into a crisp, sugary shell.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar and water until it reaches a 'hair' stage.. The syrup's concentration decides whether the coating dries crisp. Stopping too early leaves it sticky, while boiling too far makes it darken and taste 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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