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 ↓
Orgeat Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Pound the blanched almonds with a little water to prevent them from turning to oil.
Add the pounded sugar equal to half the weight of the almonds and mix into a paste.
Mix a piece of the paste the size of an egg in a pint of spring water.
Strain through a napkin.
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 main flavour and body of the syrup as they are ground and steeped.
- Pounded sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and combines with the almond paste to make it smooth.
The step that matters
Pounding the almonds with a little water. Almonds are rich in oil, and pounding them dry can release it and make the paste greasy. A little water keeps the almonds emulsified into a fine, smooth paste.
“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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