Why it works: Almond and syrup work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 746 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Almond Water
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the almonds
Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds.
Pound the almonds in a mortar, adding a few drops of water to prevent oiliness.
Make the infusion
Boil the syrup in a pot.
Add the mashed almonds to the boiling syrup and boil for 1 minute.
Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
Serve
When serving, dilute with cold water to taste.
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.
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Almond + syruptop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together746 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
- Supply the main almond flavour and body of the drink.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a stronger, sharper almond aroma that sweet almonds alone lack.
- Syrup
- Provides sweetness and a thick base that carries the almond flavour.
The step that matters
Pounding the almonds with a few drops of water. Almonds are rich in oil. Adding a little water while pounding helps keep the oil from separating and turning the paste greasy, so it blends more evenly into the syrup.
“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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