Why it works: Almond and sugar 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 ↓
Almonds Qrillbd
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dry the blanched almonds in an open oven or by patting them between two cloths.
Make the syrup
In a saucepan, combine the confectioner's sugar and water, and bring to a boil until it threads from the spoon.
Coat and cool
Add the almonds to the boiling syrup and stir occasionally until they change color.
Remove from heat and stir the syrup until it crystallizes.
Spread the almonds on a platter to cool.
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 + sugartop 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
- Blanched almonds
- Provide the crunchy, nutty core that the syrup coats and toasts.
- Confectioner's sugar
- Cooks into a syrup that crystallizes into a sweet, opaque, crisp coating.
The step that matters
Stir the syrup until it crystallizes. Once off the heat, the supersaturated sugar begins to form tiny crystals. Stirring at the right moment makes them sandy and opaque, coating the almonds evenly. Stirring too early or too little can leave a sticky or uneven coat.
“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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