No. 4
Almond Milk
Lait d'Amandes
A three-line formula for fresh almond milk, from the reference chapter of Ranhofer's The Epicurean. It works, but the proportions are strong by modern habit and the equipment assumed is a marble mortar.
- Yield and strengthHalf a pound of almonds to a pint of water gives a small quantity of very rich, opaque milk — closer to a nut cream than to carton almond milk. Expect somewhat less than the pint you put in, since the pressed meal holds liquid back. Thin it with a second pint if you want a drinking consistency.
- Use blanched almondsThe recipe does not say so, though a peeling method follows immediately as his No. 5. Skins make the milk grey and slightly bitter. Pour boiling water over raw almonds, stand one minute, and slip the skins off, or buy them blanched.
- Blender instead of mortarThe pounding is only there to rupture the cells and release the oil. A blender does it faster, but add the water in stages as directed — grinding the almonds nearly dry first, with just a few spoonfuls of liquid, gets you the smooth paste he wants before you dilute.
- Orange-flower waterTwo spoonfuls of the modern distilled product is a lot, and strengths vary considerably between bottlings. Start with a teaspoon and taste. It should read as perfume behind the almond, not as the main flavour.
- Straining"Forcibly through a napkin" means twisting the cloth hard to wring out the last of the liquid. A double layer of butter muslin or a nut-milk bag does the same job. The spent almond meal is worth keeping for cakes and macaroon mixtures.
- No sugarThis is an unsweetened base, and almond milk of this kind turns up in preparations such as blancmange and creams. Sweeten at the point of use rather than here.
- KeepingFreshly ground nut milk separates within hours and sours in a day or two under refrigeration. Make it the day it is wanted and shake before using.
Almond milk was a staple of European cookery long before it was a supermarket product: from the medieval period onward it stood in for dairy on fast days, when milk, butter and eggs were forbidden but the kitchen still needed something white, rich and thickenable. By the time Charles Ranhofer set down the working methods of Delmonico's in The Epicurean (1894), the religious reason had faded and the culinary one remained — lait d'amandes was the foundation of blancmanges, bavarian creams and iced desserts, and it belonged in the elementary chapter alongside chopping and peeling nuts because a cook was expected to produce it without being told twice. The orange-flower water is a survival of the same older tradition, when distilled floral waters were the standard perfume of the sweet kitchen, long before vanilla extract became the default.