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 ↓
Almond Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the almonds
Blanch the Jordan and bitter almonds.
Place the blanched almonds in cold water for 1–2 hours.
Drain the almonds and wipe them dry.
Make the paste
Pound the almonds into a fine paste, adding a few drops of cold water to prevent oiling.
Mix in the sifted sugar thoroughly.
Transfer the mixture to a small preserving pan.
Stir the mixture over a gentle heat until it no longer sticks to your fingers.
Immediately turn the paste into an earthen pan or jar.
Let the paste cool before use.
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
- Jordan almonds
- Provide the main body and rich nutty flavour of the paste.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a sharp almond aroma that gives the paste depth of flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the paste and helps it firm up as it is heated.
The step that matters
Stirring over gentle heat. Heating too hard or too long can scorch the sugar and make the paste oily or grainy. Stir gently only until it no longer sticks to your fingers, then move it off the heat so it does not overcook.
“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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