Salt Almonds
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Blanch the almonds by covering them with boiling water and letting them stand for 5 minutes.
Remove the skins while keeping the almonds wet to prevent sticking.
Salt and fry
Boil the blanched almonds in 1 qt of water and 1 cup of salt for 10 minutes.
Drain the almonds in a colander.
Heat the lard until very hot and fry the almonds until golden, being careful not to over-brown them.
Drain the fried almonds on brown paper.
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
What each ingredient does
- Almonds
- Provide the main body of the snack, and their oils crisp and brown during frying.
- Lard
- Fries the almonds, carrying heat evenly and adding richness and a savory flavor.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the almonds during boiling and forms a crunchy surface once they are dried.
The step that matters
Frying the almonds until golden. Lard must be very hot before the almonds go in, otherwise they soak up fat and turn greasy. Almonds keep darkening after they leave the fat, so they should be pulled out as soon as they are golden to avoid bitterness.
“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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