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Dessert

Salted Almonds

A simple snack of blanched almonds tossed with oil or butter, salt, and baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Salted Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them and letting them sit for 2 minutes.

  2. Transfer the almonds to cold water and rub off the brown skins with a coarse towel.

  3. Let the almonds dry thoroughly.

Season and bake

  1. In a bowl, combine the almonds with olive oil or melted butter and let them sit for a while.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and mix thoroughly.

  3. Spread the almonds in a single layer on a baking pan.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes until crisp and brown, stirring once or twice.

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.

  1. Almond + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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
Provide the crunchy nut base that becomes crisp and toasty when baked.
Olive oil or melted butter
Coats the almonds so the salt sticks and the nuts brown evenly in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake in a single layer, stirring once or twice. Crowding the almonds traps moisture and they steam instead of crisping. A single layer lets hot air reach every surface, and stirring ensures even browning so some nuts do not burn while others stay pale.

“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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