Why it works: Sugar and almond 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 Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the candy
Boil brown sugar and water for about 1 hour.
Pour the mixture onto a marble slab.
Sprinkle almonds over the mixture and work them together until firm.
Shape and cut
Shape into a thick roll.
Cut into slices ½ inch thick with a sharp knife.
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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Sugar + almondtop 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
- Brown sugar
- Forms the sweet, set candy base as it boils and cools.
- Almonds
- Add crunch and texture that break up the firm sugar mass.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled into a syrup.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar and water for about 1 hour. Boiling concentrates the sugar syrup so it sets firm when cooled. Too little cooking leaves the candy soft and sticky, while the right concentration gives a candy that holds its shape when sliced.
“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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