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Salted Almonds

A simple preparation of almonds toasted with olive oil and salt.

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 ↓

Salted Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Blanch the almonds.

  2. Pour olive oil over the almonds and add salt.

  3. Let them stand for 1-2 hours, stirring frequently.

Bake

  1. Spread the almonds in a single layer in a pan.

  2. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 20 minutes, shaking the pan frequently for even coloring.

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 that the oil and salt cling to and that browns in the oven.
Olive oil
Coats the almonds so the salt adheres and the nuts toast evenly with a rich flavor.
Fine salt
Seasons the nuts and sits on the oiled surface, adding savory flavor.

The step that matters

Baking with frequent shaking. Almonds darken quickly once their sugars and proteins brown, and unevenly exposed nuts can scorch while others stay pale. Shaking the pan often and keeping the nuts in a single layer helps them colour evenly.

“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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