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Drink

Almond Milk

A chilled drink made by blending Jordan almonds with sugar, orange flower water, milk, and iced 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond base

  1. Pound the almonds with the orange flower water and sugar until smooth and creamy.

  2. Gradually add the milk and leave it on ice for two hours.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, add an equal quantity of iced water.

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. Orange + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 nutty flavour and body of the milk when pounded into a paste.
Sifted sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pounded almonds blend into a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and dilutes the almond paste into a drinkable liquid.
Orange flower water
Adds a floral aroma that complements the almond flavour.

The step that matters

Pound the almonds until smooth and creamy. Thoroughly breaking down the almonds releases their oils and fine particles, which gives the drink a smooth texture instead of a gritty one. Adding the sugar and orange flower water during pounding helps the paste form evenly.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. 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.

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