Name: Another Way to Make Almond Paste
Ingredients: ½ pound bitter almonds, blanched; 1 pound sweet almonds, blanched; 1 pound honey; orange-flower water or rose water

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 ↓

Another Way to Make Almond Paste

Ingredients

½ pound bitter almonds, blanched
1 pound sweet almonds, blanched
1 pound honey
orange-flower water or rose water

Directions

Make the paste

Finely pound the bitter and sweet almonds together.
Mix in honey and a sufficient quantity of orange-flower or rose water.

Pot and seal

Transfer the mixture into small pots.
Pour a little more orange-flower or rose water on top.
Seal the pots tightly with paper.

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.

Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Honey + orangetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,068 recipes

Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).
Almond + honeytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,069 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds: Provides the bulk and mild, rich almond flavour of the paste.
Bitter almonds: Adds a sharper, more pronounced almond flavour to the paste.
Honey: Binds the ground almonds and keeps the paste moist and sweet.
Orange-flower water or rose water: Adds a floral aroma to the 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.