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Dessert

Syrup of Almond

A sweet almond syrup made by grinding almonds, dissolving sugar, and straining the liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Syrup of Almond

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond milk

  1. Blanch the almonds.

  2. Grind them in a mortar to a very fine paste, adding 3 ounces of water and 12 ounces of sugar during grinding.

  3. Mix the paste with the remaining water thoroughly.

  4. Strain it, applying strong pressure.

Make the syrup

  1. Add the remaining sugar to the strained liquid.

  2. Dissolve it over gentle heat.

  3. Strain the solution through muslin.

  4. Allow it to cool.

Store

  1. Store it in well-stopped bottles in a cool place.

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and body of the syrup once ground and strained.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated, aromatic almond flavour to the syrup.
Refined sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve it by reducing free water.

The step that matters

Grinding the almonds to a very fine paste. A fine paste releases more oil and flavour into the water, and straining under strong pressure then recovers more of the liquid. Coarse pieces leave the syrup gritty and weak.

“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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