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 Water
Ingredients
Directions
Blanch the almonds
Pour boiling water over the almonds and let sit for a few minutes until the brown skin comes off.
Remove the skin by pressing each kernel gently between your thumb and finger.
Make the almond water
Place the blanched almonds in a mortar with the sugar and a little water.
Gradually add more water until the mixture is perfectly smooth.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve or cloth.
Adjust the sugar to taste.
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 flavour and body of the almond water once ground and strained.
- White powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the water to balance the almond flavour.
The step that matters
Gradually add more water until the mixture is perfectly smooth. Adding water slowly while grinding lets the almonds break down into a fine emulsion-like suspension. Adding it all at once can leave gritty particles that straining may not fully remove.
“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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