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Dessert

Salted Almonds

Salted almonds are blanched, dried, coated with butter or oil, roasted, and salted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Salted Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them and letting them sit for 10 minutes, covered, then drain the water.

  2. Cover the almonds with more boiling water.

  3. Once cool enough to handle, remove the skins.

  4. Spread the almonds on a sieve or cloth to dry.

Roast with butter

  1. In a flat baking pan, add soft butter and the dried almonds.

  2. Stir briskly until well coated.

  3. Place the pan in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

  4. Stir every few minutes until the almonds are lightly browned.

  5. While hot, sprinkle the almonds generously with fine salt.

  6. Transfer them to tissue paper to cool.

Roast with oil

  1. Alternatively, coat the blanched almonds with salad oil.

  2. Spread them on a shallow dish.

  3. Let them sit in a cool place for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally.

  4. Transfer the almonds and oil to a baking pan.

  5. Roast in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

  6. Stir frequently to prevent burning.

  7. Once roasted, transfer to a platter.

  8. Sift fine salt over them.

  9. Toss with a fork to ensure even salting.

  10. Let them dry on paper.

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 + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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 body and develop a roasted, nutty flavor as they brown.
Butter
Carries the heat and promotes even browning while helping the salt stick to the nuts.
Salad oil
Coats the almonds so they brown evenly and the salt adheres to their surface.

The step that matters

Stir during roasting until lightly browned. Nuts contain sugars and proteins that brown quickly at 400°F through the Maillard reaction, so they can scorch unevenly if not stirred. They also keep darkening from residual heat after leaving the oven, so they should be removed at light golden.

“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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