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Orgeat Paste

A sweet almond paste mixed with powdered sugar and rose water, then stored in small covered containers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,465 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Orgeat Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch the bitter and sweet almonds.

  2. Pound the almonds in a mortar, adding rose water frequently to maintain whiteness and prevent oiliness.

  3. Continue pounding until you achieve a fine, smooth paste.

Make the syrup base

  1. Mix the almond paste with the powdered sugar in the mortar, adding more rose water as needed.

  2. Pound the mixture until the sugar and almonds are thoroughly incorporated.

Store

  1. Store the mixture in small covered pots or glasses in a cool, dry place.

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 + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Rose + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

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

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 body and nutty flavour of the paste.
Bitter almonds
Add a sharper almond aroma that balances the sweetness.
Powdered loaf sugar
Sweetens the paste and dissolves into the almond oils to form a syrup base.
Rose water
Keeps the paste moist and smooth while adding a floral aroma.

The step that matters

Adding rose water while pounding the almonds. Almonds release oil as they are crushed, which can make the paste greasy and grainy. Adding rose water keeps it moist and emulsified, helping it stay smooth and pale.

“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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