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Dessert

Salt Almonds

Roasted almonds seasoned with salt and oil.

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 ↓

Salt Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Skin the almonds

  1. Shell the almonds.

  2. Place the shelled almonds in a bowl and pour boiling water over them.

  3. Let them sit for 10 minutes.

  4. Check if the skins slip off easily.

  5. If so, drain the hot water and cover the almonds with cold water.

  6. Remove the skins by applying pressure or pulling at one end.

  7. Spread the almonds on a dish and let them dry in a warm place.

Oil, bake and salt

  1. Once dry, pour the olive oil or melted butter over the almonds and mix well.

  2. Spread the almonds in a single layer on a shallow pan.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until they are very faintly colored.

  4. Remove from the oven and dust with fine salt.

  5. Once cooled, shake lightly to remove excess salt.

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
Form the crunchy base; removing the skins gives them a pale, clean appearance and mild flavor.
Olive oil or melted butter
Coats the almonds so the salt sticks and they brown evenly, adding richness.

The step that matters

Stopping the bake at a faint color. Almonds keep darkening from residual heat after leaving the oven. Pull them when only faintly colored, since over-browning through Maillard reactions turns them bitter.

“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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