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Orgeat

A syrup made from sweet and bitter almonds, orange‑flower water, rose water, pure water, and clarified sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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

Make the almond base

  1. Pound the sweet and bitter almonds very fine in a marble mortar with orange-flower water to prevent oiling.

  2. Mix the ground almonds with rose water and pure water.

  3. Rub the mixture through a tammy cloth or sieve until the almonds are dry.

Finish and bottle

  1. Add clarified sugar or clear syrup and boil for one minute.

  2. Let it cool and then bottle it, corking tightly.

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.

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. Orange + rosetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together876 recipes

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

  3. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Orange and sugar 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty almond flavour of the syrup.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, sharper almond aroma that rounds out the flavour.
Orange-flower water
Adds a floral citrus aroma and helps keep the pounded almonds from releasing oil.
Rose water
Contributes a delicate floral aroma to the syrup.
Clarified sugar or clear syrup
Adds sweetness and body, and helps preserve the finished syrup.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a tammy cloth or sieve until the almonds are dry. Pounded almonds release their oils and starches into the liquid. Straining thoroughly removes the solids so the syrup stays smooth and clear rather than grainy or cloudy.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Orangethe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, rose, 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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