Skip to main content
Dessert

Burnt Almonds

A confection of almonds coated with caramelized sugar and glazed with gum arabic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Burnt Almonds

Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Burnt Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sugar syrup

  1. Dissolve 2 to 3 pounds of sugar in water and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the almonds and cook over low heat until a soft crack stage is reached, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and stir until the sugar granulates and becomes dry.

  4. Place the almonds in a coarse sieve and shake off the loose sugar.

Color and coat

  1. In a pan, combine 1 pound of sugar with water to dissolve, then add red and burnt sugar for coloring.

  2. Cook to the soft crack stage, remove from heat, and stir in vanilla extract.

  3. Add the almonds and toss with a paddle until they are granulated.

  4. Return to the sieve and shake off the loose sugar, repeating until coated to your desired size.

Gloss and dry

  1. In a clean pan, gloss the almonds with dissolved gum arabic while hot.

  2. Mix ½ ounce of ground gum arabic with ½ cup of hot water until dissolved.

  3. Tumble the almonds in the gum mixture until all are wet, then transfer to a wooden tray.

  4. Let the almonds stand in a warm place until dry.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Almonds
Form the core that the sugar layers build around.
Sugar
Cooks to a crystalline coating that gives the almonds their crunchy, sweet shell.
Gum arabic
Binds the glaze so the sugar coating adheres and gains a smooth gloss.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma to the sugar coating.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar to soft crack stage. Sugar syrup must reach the soft crack stage before the almonds are added. If it is undercooked the coating stays sticky, and if overcooked it hardens unevenly or burns. Stirring keeps the heat even so the sugar granulates into a dry, even coating.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Macadamia nutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla. 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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesAlmond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipes