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 ↓
Burnt Almonds
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Blanch and dry the almonds.
Place the butter in a tin pan and set it in the oven.
Toast
Brown the almonds lightly, similar to coffee.
Once done, sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Serve
Serve cold with figs or raisins.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Browning during toasting develops their nutty, roasted flavor and crisp texture.
- Butter
- Fat that carries heat evenly around the almonds and adds richness and flavor.
The step that matters
Brown the almonds lightly. Toasting relies on Maillard browning, where sugars and proteins react with heat to create roasted flavor. Nuts continue to darken after leaving the heat, so removing them at a light coffee color prevents a bitter, burnt taste.
“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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