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To Blanch Almonds

Almonds are blanched, then salted and baked until browned.

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

To Blanch Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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.

Blanch the almonds

  1. Place almonds in cold water and bring to a boil.

  2. Remove the skins and transfer almonds to cold water for a few moments to preserve color.

Salt and bake

  1. For salted almonds, place them in a baking dish with lumps of butter.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until nicely browned.

  3. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and toss to mix thoroughly.

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 main nut body, which turns golden and crisp when baked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the almonds brown and carry the salt.

The step that matters

Bake until nicely browned. Almonds darken quickly once the sugars and proteins on their surface begin to caramelise in the oven. Pulling them when they are just golden keeps them crisp and avoids a bitter, burnt flavour.

“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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