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
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Blanch the almonds, avoiding prolonged soaking in water.
Mix the almonds with melted butter or salad oil and let them sit for 1 hour.
Sprinkle the almonds with coarse sea salt.
Bake and cool
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 15 to 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let cool until crisp.
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 + 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
- Blanched almonds
- Form the main body and nutty flavour, and set the crunch once baked and cooled.
- Melted butter or salad oil
- Coats the almonds so the salt sticks and the nuts brown evenly in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Nut skins darken quickly from golden to dark, because sugars and proteins brown through the Maillard reaction at high heat. Stirring exposes every almond to the heat evenly. Almonds keep browning briefly after leaving the oven, so pull them when they are just golden.
“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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