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
Prepare
Shell, blanch, and dry the almonds.
Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the nuts and let them stand for 1 hour.
Fry and salt
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a chafing dish.
Add the almonds and cook, stirring constantly, until they are a delicate brown.
Drain the almonds on soft paper and sprinkle with fine salt.
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 + olivetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Provide the main body, nutty flavor, and crunch once fried.
- Olive oil
- Carries heat evenly to the nuts, promoting uniform browning and a crisp finish.
The step that matters
Stirring the almonds while they brown. Nut sugars and proteins darken quickly in hot oil, so the almonds can turn bitter within seconds. Constant stirring keeps the heat even, and residual heat keeps darkening them after they leave the pan.
“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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