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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the almonds
Pound the Jordan and bitter almonds very fine in a marble mortar with the orange flower water.
Mix the almond mixture with 1 pint of orange flower water and 1 pint of water, then strain through a fine sieve until the almonds are dry.
Make the syrup
Boil 3 pints of clarified sugar or water until it cracks when tested in cold water.
Add the almond mixture to the boiling sugar and boil for 1 minute.
Bottle or serve
Let it cool, then bottle and cork tightly. Shake before using.
For immediate use, mix the pounded almonds with 1 quart of water, 1 quart of milk, and 1 pint of clarified sugar, then strain and decant.
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.
-
Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,125 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Orange + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Almond + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
-
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 almond flavour and the fine solids and oils that give the drink body.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a deeper, more intense almond aroma to the drink.
- Orange flower water
- Adds a fragrant floral aroma that flavours the almond base.
- Milk
- Adds richness and creaminess through its fat and proteins in the immediate-use version.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and body, and helps preserve the bottled syrup.
The step that matters
Testing the boiling sugar. Sugar must reach the stage where it cracks in cold water to form a firm, stable syrup. Judging this by eye is easy to get wrong, and a syrup that is too thin may not keep well once bottled.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, milk. 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.
More orgeat recipes
You might also like
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes
Orange Gelatin100 recipes
Orange Sherbet73 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.