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Salted Devilled Almonds
Shell a half pound fine large almonds, then plunge them in a quart boiling water, with a half teaspoon salt, for four minutes. Drain on a sieve; neatly peel and wipe dry on a cloth. Lightly butter a pie plate, place the almonds in the plate and set in a moderate oven for ten minutes, occasionally turning them over with a wooden spoon meanwhile. Pour over them one tablespoon very hot melted butter, repeatedly turn them with the spoon, sprinkle a light teaspoon fine salt and a saltspoon cayenne pepper over them, lightly mix again, return them to the oven and roast for twenty minutes or until they are of a nice golden colour, being very careful to mix them frequently with the wooden spoon. Remove from the oven, drop them on a clean towel to drain, dredge over a teaspoon salt and one light saltspoon cayenne pepper, then briskly shake them in a folded cloth or tin can. Dress on a glass dish with a fancy paper over it and serve hot.
Peanuts or any other kind of nuts may be prepared in this way.
A standard turn-of-the-century savoury for the dinner table, and still one of the better things to do with a half pound of almonds. Two details need translating: the oven and the saltspoon.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350-375F. The nuts go in twice, ten minutes and then twenty, which is a long total roast; start checking colour and smell well before the end of the second stage.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. The recipe therefore calls for about half a teaspoon of cayenne across the two seasonings, which is assertive but not extreme for half a pound of nuts.
- Salt totalA light teaspoon of fine salt goes on before the second roast and another teaspoon after the almonds come out, plus the half teaspoon in the blanching water. That is heavy by current taste; a single teaspoon in total, split between the two stages as written, is closer to what most people want.
- BlanchingFour minutes in boiling water loosens the skins, which then slip off under thumb pressure. Dry the almonds thoroughly before they meet butter or they will steam rather than roast and the salt will clump.
- Shelled weightThe recipe says to shell the almonds, so it is not clear whether the half pound is weighed in the shell or as kernels. Buy raw whole almonds with skins on, not blanched slivered ones.
- The shaking stepTossing the hot nuts in a folded cloth or tin does the real work of distributing salt and cayenne evenly. Skip it and the seasoning sits in patches. A lidded jar or a bowl with a plate clamped over it works as well.
- Yield and keepingHalf a pound gives about a cup and a half, enough for six to eight as a drinks nibble. They are best warm, as directed, but keep about a week in an airtight tin once fully cool.
- Other nutsThe note about peanuts holds, though raw peanuts need no blanching and pecans or walnuts colour faster; take five to ten minutes off the second roast for softer, oilier nuts.
Salted almonds were a fixture of formal American and European dinners in the decades around 1900, set out in small glass or silver dishes at each cover. The direction to dress them on a glass dish with a fancy paper is a restaurant man's instinct for presentation carried into the home kitchen. "Devilled" here means simply seasoned with cayenne, the same sense as in devilled eggs or devilled kidneys, and the word was applied through the nineteenth century to almost anything given a sharp peppery finish. The blanch-then-roast method predates the recipe by a long way, since almond skins are bitter and will not brown evenly.