Why it works: Almond and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Almond Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the almond milk
Blanch the almonds and grind them using a meat chopper or pound them in a mortar.
Mix the ground almonds with the cold milk gradually to form a smooth paste.
Press the mixture through a cheesecloth to extract the almond milk.
Make and serve the soup
In a separate pot, combine the hot milk with sugar and salt.
Add the almond milk to the hot milk mixture, heat gently, and serve.
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.
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Almond + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Sweet almonds
- Provide the main flavour and body of the soup once ground and steeped in milk.
- Cold milk
- Moistens the ground almonds into a smooth paste so their flavour can be extracted.
- Hot milk
- Forms the warm base of the soup that the almond milk is added to.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the milk and almond flavour.
The step that matters
Forming a smooth paste with the cold milk. Adding the cold milk gradually keeps the ground almonds from clumping, so they break down evenly and release more flavour and fine texture into the milk when pressed.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar):
- Cocoafits about as well
- Almondthe original
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Peanutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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