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Orgeat, or Milk of Almonds

A syrup made from almonds, orange‑flower water, sugar, and spring water, strained and chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Orgeat, or Milk of Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Scald the Jordan and bitter almonds, then remove the skins.

  2. Soak the almonds in cold water for several hours.

  3. Pound the soaked almonds into a pulp with the orange-flower water.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine the almond pulp, loaf sugar, and spring water in an earthen pan.

  2. Stir well, cover the pan, and let it sit for an hour.

  3. Strain the mixture through a clear sieve.

Serve

  1. Keep the pan on ice and add iced water for serving.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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 almond flavour and body of the syrup once pounded into a pulp.
Bitter almonds
Add a sharper, more intense almond aroma to the syrup.
Orange-flower water
Adds a floral aroma that perfumes the almond base.
Finest loaf sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve it once dissolved.

The step that matters

Soak the almonds before pounding. Soaking softens the almonds so they break down into a smooth pulp; unsoaked almonds stay gritty and release less flavour into the syrup.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, 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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