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Orgeat Syrup

A sweet almond syrup made with blanched and bitter almonds, water, sugar, and orange flower water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Orgeat Syrup

Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Orgeat Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond milk

  1. Put the blanched sweet almonds and bitter almonds into a mortar with a little water.

  2. Beat to a smooth cream.

  3. Add the water and mix thoroughly.

  4. Strain the mixture into a boiling pan.

Finish and bottle

  1. Add the castor sugar and orange flower water.

  2. Heat and stir until the sugar is completely melted.

  3. Remove from heat and bottle.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and body of the syrup.
Bitter almonds
Add a sharper, more intense almond aroma to the syrup.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the syrup and gives it body once dissolved.
Orange flower water
Adds a fragrant floral aroma.

The step that matters

Heat and stir until the sugar is completely melted. Undissolved sugar leaves grains in the syrup and can crystallise as it cools. Heating while stirring dissolves the sugar fully, giving a smooth, stable syrup.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar. 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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