Why it works: Almond and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,875 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Roasted Almonds
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Shell and blanch the almonds.
Place them in a saucepan with salt.
Roast and brown
Heat the saucepan in a 400°F (200°C) oven until hot.
Remove the saucepan from the oven.
Add olive oil to the almonds.
Shake the almonds over low heat until browned, being careful not to burn them.
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.
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Almond + olivetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Almonds
- Form the crunchy body of the snack, and roasting develops their nutty aroma.
- Olive oil
- Carries heat evenly across the nuts, helping them brown and adding richness.
The step that matters
Shake the almonds over low heat until browned. Browning comes from sugars and proteins reacting under heat, and the gap between evenly golden and burnt is short. Low heat and constant shaking let the nuts colour evenly without scorching.
“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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