Skip to main content
Dessert

Salt Almonds

Roasted almonds seasoned with salt and optional oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Salt 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.

Blanch and dry

  1. Pour boiling water over almonds.

  2. Let sit 10 minutes.

  3. Drain and cover with more boiling water.

  4. Remove skins from almonds.

  5. Spread on sieve or cloth to dry completely.

Roast with butter

  1. Add butter and almonds to a flat baking pan.

  2. Stir briskly until each nut is well coated.

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

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

  5. Sprinkle the almonds generously with fine salt.

  6. Transfer them to tissue paper to cool.

Oil, chill and roast again

  1. Coat the blanched almonds with salad oil.

  2. Spread them on a shallow dish.

  3. Leave in a cold place for 1–2 hours, stirring occasionally.

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

  5. Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  6. Stir frequently to prevent burning.

Salt and finish

  1. Transfer to a platter.

  2. Sift fine salt over them.

  3. Toss with a fork to ensure even salting.

  4. Let 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
Provide the nut body and natural oils that toast and turn crisp when roasted.
Butter
Adds fat and milk solids that coat the nuts and help them brown with a rich flavor.
Salad oil
Helps the salt stick to the nuts and promotes even browning during roasting.

The step that matters

Stirring during the second roast. Nuts left still scorch on the side touching the pan while others stay pale. Frequent stirring spreads the heat and sugars evenly, so the almonds brown uniformly without burning.

“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

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes