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Dessert

Syrup of Orgeat

A sweet almond syrup made by blending blanched almonds with water, orange‑flower water, and clarified sugar syrup.

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

Syrup of Orgeat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond emulsion

  1. Blanch the almonds and rub them in a mortar to a smooth paste, adding cold water as needed to prevent oiling.

  2. Mix the paste with cold water and strain through a cotton bag, squeezing well to extract all the almond goodness.

  3. Combine the emulsion with orange-flower water.

Make the syrup

  1. Prepare a gallon of clarified syrup, boil it, and gradually stir in the emulsion to control boiling.

  2. Continue boiling until the syrup reaches the desired consistency, then let it cool.

Bottle and preserve

  1. Bottle the syrup while still warm, agitating before pouring into bottles.

  2. Allow to cool completely before corking.

  3. To preserve, pour a drop of olive oil on top of each full bottle, leaving no more than half an inch of space before the cork.

  4. When opening a bottle, remove the oil with a bit of cotton.

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 + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,875 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Orange + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Almond + syruptop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together746 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Orange + syruptop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,179 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and the body of the emulsion once ground to a paste.
Taitter almonds
Add extra almond flavour and richness to the emulsion.
Clarified syrup
Provides sweetness and the body of the finished syrup.
Orange-flower water
Adds a delicate floral aroma to the syrup.

The step that matters

Gradually stirring the emulsion into boiling syrup. Adding the emulsion slowly keeps the boil under control and helps the almond emulsion blend evenly instead of separating or scorching. Almond emulsions can split if they are heated too quickly or not kept well mixed.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, syrup, olive. 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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