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Orgeat, a Pleasunt Slimmer Brink

A sweet almond syrup made with bitter and sweet almonds, orange‑flower water, rose water, distilled water, and clarified syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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, a Pleasunt Slimmer Brink

Ingredients

Directions

Make the orgeat

  1. Blanch the almonds and beat them to a paste in a mortar with the orange‑flower water.

  2. Gradually work in the rose‑water and distilled water.

  3. Strain the mixture through a coarse sieve.

Finish and bottle

  1. Add the syrup and boil for one minute.

  2. Let it cool, then bottle and cork it well.

  3. Mix a tablespoonful in a tumbler of water for an excellent drink.

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. Orange + rosetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together876 recipes

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

  3. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Almond + syruptop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together746 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Orange + syruptop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,179 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 body and nutty flavour of the syrup.
Bitter almonds
Add a stronger, sharper almond aroma that balances the sweetness.
Clarified syrup
Supplies sweetness and body, and helps preserve the finished syrup.
Orange-flower water
Adds a floral aroma to the almond paste.
Rose-water
Adds a delicate floral aroma to the finished syrup.

The step that matters

Boiling after adding the syrup. Boiling for only one minute is enough to heat and combine the syrup with the almond mixture without driving off the delicate floral aromas. Boiling longer would weaken them and could darken the flavour.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits about as well
  3. Orangethe original
  4. Raisinfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, rose, syrup. 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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