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Almond Milk

A beverage made by blending almonds with sugar, orange‑flower water, and spring water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Almond Milk

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 ↓

Almond Milk

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Blanch the almonds and pound them with the sugar in a mortar, adding the orange-flower water.

  2. When creamy and smooth, transfer to a basin, add the water, and stir with a silver spoon.

  3. Let it sit for 2 hours, then strain and store in a cool place to prevent souring.

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

Jordan almonds
Provide the main body and rich, nutty flavour of the milk.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, sharper almond aroma that balances the sweetness.
White sugar
Sweetens the milk and helps grind the almonds to a smooth paste.
Orange-flower water
Adds a floral aroma that complements the almond flavour.

The step that matters

Pounding the almonds to a smooth, creamy paste. If the almonds are not ground fine enough with the sugar, the milk will be gritty and the flavour will not extract well. Pounding until creamy lets the oils and flavour release into the water when it is added and stirred.

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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