Skip to main content
Main

Almond Sauce for Cold Meats

A sauce made with blanched almonds, Worcestershire sauce, chutney, pickles, and spices, served over cold meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,566 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Sauce for Cold Meats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds and cut them into thin strips.

  2. Fry the almonds in just enough oil to keep from burning until light brown.

Make and heat the sauce

  1. Mix Worcestershire sauce, chutney, chopped pickles, salt, and Cayenne pepper in a bowl.

  2. Pour the mixture over the fried almonds and cook until heated.

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 + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Almond + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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

Almonds
Provide the main body and crisp, nutty texture once fried.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury depth and acidity to the sauce.
Chutney
Contributes sweetness and fruity acidity to balance the sauce.
Chopped pickles
Adds sharp acidity and a salty, tangy bite.

The step that matters

Frying the almonds until light brown. Almonds go from pale to bitter and burnt within moments, and oil that is too hot or too deep can scorch them before they colour evenly. Keeping the oil shallow and watching closely lets the nuts brown gently and develop a nutty flavour.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, pepper):

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, pepper. 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

Almond SoupAlmond Soup60 recipesAlmond SaladAlmond Salad6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes