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Burnt Almonds

Almonds coated in sugar, boiled to snap stage, then dried on a sieve.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Burnt Almonds

Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Burnt Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Rinse the almonds in a cloth to remove dust.

  2. Warm them in a screen.

Coat the almonds

  1. Boil the sugar in a pot until it reaches the snap stage.

  2. Add vanilla sugar and cochineal to the sugar.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Stir the almonds with a wooden spoon until they are coated in sugar.

  5. Pour the mixture onto a wire sieve.

  6. Cover with paper for 5 minutes.

  7. Pick out the coated almonds.

  8. Return the sugar to the pot with enough water to dissolve it.

  9. Boil the sugar again to the snap stage.

  10. Add the almonds and stir to coat them.

  11. Turn the almonds out onto the sieve.

  12. Pick them out again.

  13. Return the sugar to the pot with a little water and more cochineal.

  14. Boil the sugar to the snap stage again.

  15. Stir in the almonds.

  16. Pour them onto the sieve to cool.

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 + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Jordan almonds
Form the crunchy core that the coating of sugar is built around.
Sugar
Forms the hard, glossy candy coating that sets as the almonds cool.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar to the snap stage. Sugar must reach the correct temperature to set hard and glossy when cooled. Under-boiled sugar stays sticky and soft, while over-boiled sugar turns bitter and brown. Cooking to the snap stage gives a crisp, durable coating.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Macadamia nutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla. 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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