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Salted Almonds II
Prepare almonds as for Salted Almonds I. Fry in onethird cup fat, using half lard and half clarified butter or all cocoanut butter. Drain, and sprinkle with salt.
A two-line recipe that assumes you have already read Salted Almonds I, where the nuts are blanched and dried. The whole trick is heat control: almonds carry on browning after they leave the fat.
- The missing first stepSalted Almonds I calls for blanched almonds — cover shelled almonds with boiling water, let stand a minute or two, slip off the skins, then dry them thoroughly on a towel. Wet almonds will spit violently in hot fat.
- One-third cup of fatThat is about 80 ml, enough for shallow frying in a small pan, not deep frying. Work in batches of a half cup of nuts or so, so the fat is not crowded and cooled.
- Cocoanut butterThis is refined coconut oil, sold in jars as a solid white fat. It was available to cooks of this period as a bland frying medium with a moderate smoke point, and works as intended here. Clarified butter is butter with the milk solids and water removed, which is why it can take the heat when whole butter cannot.
- LardStandard kitchen fat in 1896 and still sound for frying. Modern shortening is not a straight substitute; if you want a neutral fat, use all coconut oil as the recipe permits.
- TemperatureHold the fat around 325–350F. Higher and the outsides darken before the interiors toast; the almonds should come out pale gold, no deeper, because they will darken further as they drain.
- TimingTwo to four minutes, stirring constantly. Lift them out while they are a shade lighter than you want.
- SaltingDrain on paper or a brown-paper bag and salt while still hot and glossy — the salt will not adhere once the surface fat sets. Fine salt clings far better than coarse.
- Yield and keepingThe recipe gives no quantity of nuts; a cup will serve several people as a dinner-table nut. Cool completely before storing, or trapped steam will soften them; airtight, they keep about a week.
Salted almonds belonged to the formal dinner service of the late nineteenth century, set out in small silver or glass dishes along the table to be nibbled between courses rather than eaten as a snack from a bowl. Fannie Farmer gives two methods, one baked and one fried. Blanching and frying almonds in butter is much older than the book, inherited from European confectionery — but the appearance of "cocoanut butter" as an alternative is distinctly of its moment, when refined coconut oil was becoming available to American cooks and promoted as a cheap, keeping-quality frying fat.