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Almond Paste

A sweet paste made from ground bitter almonds, barley flour, and honey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Paste

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Blanch the almonds and grind them into a fine powder using a mortar, then mix in the barley flour.

  2. Add honey gradually until a smooth paste forms.

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 + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + barleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together78 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  3. Almond + honeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Barley + honeytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together78 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bitter almonds
Provide the main body and nutty aroma of the paste once ground fine.
Barley flour
Adds bulk and starch that helps the mixture hold together as a paste.
Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture that bind the powder into a smooth paste.

The step that matters

Grinding the almonds fine. If the almonds stay coarse, the paste will feel gritty and won't bind smoothly with the honey. Blanching first removes the skins, which would otherwise add bitterness and texture to the finished paste.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, flour, honey):

  1. Milletfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Flaxseedfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, flour, honey. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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