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Drink

Almond Drink

A sweetened almond beverage made by simmering ground almonds, sugar, and orange‑flower water, then strained and chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Drink

Ingredients

Directions

Make the drink

  1. Combine ground sweet and bitter almonds with water in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes.

  3. Add loaf sugar and stir until dissolved.

  4. Strain the mixture through a bag or sieve.

Cool and serve

  1. Let it cool before serving.

  2. For a refreshing drink, mix 1 wine glass of almond drink with soda water.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Ground sweet almonds
Provide the mild, rich almond flavour and body of the drink.
Ground bitter almonds
Add a stronger, sharper almond aroma.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the almond flavour.
Orange-flower water
Adds a light floral aroma.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture through a bag or sieve. Straining removes the ground almond solids, leaving a smooth drink without grittiness.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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

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