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 ↓
Almond Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the almonds
Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds, then place them in cold water for 1-2 hours.
Drain and wipe the almonds, then pound them into a fine paste, adding a few drops of cold water to prevent oiling.
Make the paste
Mix in the powdered sugar thoroughly.
Transfer the mixture to a small saucepan and stir over low heat until it is dry and does not stick to your fingers.
Immediately turn the paste into an earthen pan or jar and let it cool before use.
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.
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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 rich flavor of the paste once ground.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a deeper, characteristic almond aroma to the paste.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the paste and helps it dry out and firm up during stirring.
The step that matters
Stirring over low heat until dry. Heating over low heat drives off moisture so the paste stops sticking to the fingers. Too much heat can scorch the sugar or cause the almond oil to separate, so the paste should be stirred constantly and watched closely.
“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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