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Dessert

Salted Almonds

Roasted almonds coated with butter and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Salted Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Shell the almonds and cover them with boiling water for 5 minutes.

  2. Transfer the almonds to cold water to easily remove the skins.

Roast and season

  1. Spread the almonds on a baking pan and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven, stirring frequently.

  2. When browned, add the butter and sprinkle with salt, stirring until coated.

  3. Turn the almonds onto a cloth to cool and wipe off excess grease and salt before using.

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 + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main crunchy body and nutty flavor that the salt and butter enhance.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the salt cling to the nuts and gives a richer coating.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the surface of the nuts and contrasts with their sweetness.

The step that matters

Roasting until browned, stirring frequently. Almonds go from golden to bitter or burnt quickly, and the sugars and oils darken fast at this low heat. Frequent stirring ensures even browning throughout the batch.

“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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