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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

Make the almond milk

  1. Blanch the almonds and pound them with the sugar and orange-flower water in a mortar until creamy and smooth.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a basin, add the spring water, and stir with a silver spoon.

Rest, strain and store

  1. Let it sit for 2 hours, then strain.

  2. Store in a very 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, fat and creamy texture of the milk once pounded and suspended in water.
Bitter almonds
Add a deeper, characteristic almond aroma and flavor in small amounts.
White sugar
Sweetens the milk and helps the pounded almonds form a smooth paste.
Orange-flower water
Adds a floral, perfumed aroma that complements the almond flavor.
Spring water
Serves as the liquid that carries the almond particles into a drinkable suspension.

The step that matters

Store in a very cool place. This milk contains no preservative and is mostly water with fresh almond solids, so warmth lets bacteria multiply quickly and sour it. Keeping it cold slows that spoilage.

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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