Skip to main content
Preserve

To Pound Almonds

Pounded almonds are made by drying blanched almonds, chopping, and rolling them with optional liquid until smooth, sometimes sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

To Pound Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Dry blanched almonds in a warm room for 2-3 days on a large dish.

  2. Chop the almonds roughly on a clean surface.

  3. Use a marble slab to prevent oil absorption.

Pound the almonds

  1. Using a rolling pin, roll the almonds until smooth, adding a few drops of cold water, egg white, or lemon juice as needed.

  2. Sprinkle pounded sugar under the almonds while rolling.

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

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 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
Provide the main body and rich nutty flavour of the paste.
Cold water, egg white, or lemon juice
Adds a little moisture so the almonds bind and roll smoothly into a paste.
Pounded sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the almonds from clumping while they are rolled.

The step that matters

Rolling until smooth. Almonds release oil as they are crushed, so they can turn greasy if overworked. Adding only small drops of liquid and working on a cold marble slab helps keep the paste smooth and firm.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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.

You might also like

Green Corn PuddingGreen Corn Pudding64 recipesCornmeal mushCornmeal mush12 recipes