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Salted Almonds
a Shell the almonds, put them in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Let them stand for ten minutes, then try one or two and if the skins slip off easily drain off the hot water and cover with the cold. Pressure on the nuts, or pulling at one end of the skin will make the latter slip off easily. Spread out on a dish and stand in a warm place until dry. If not thoroughly dry they will not be crisp when salted. To one-half pint of the nuts allow one teaspoonful of olive oil (or melted butter may be used). Pour this over them, turning them well through with a spoon that each nut may receive its share of the oil. Then spread in a single layer on a shallow pan and place in a moderate oven until they are very faintly colored. Take out at once, dust thickly with fine salt, and when cold shake lightly to remove any extra quantity of salt.
A straightforward blanch-and-roast method that still works. The one thing that decides the outcome is stated plainly in the original: the almonds must be bone dry before they meet the oil, or they will never turn crisp.
- Dry them properlyAfter blanching and skinning, spread the nuts in a single layer and leave them several hours, or overnight, in a warm dry spot. Surface moisture steams the nut in the oven and gives a leathery result rather than a snap.
- "One-half pint of the nuts"A dry half-pint is one cup of blanched almonds, roughly 5 oz. One teaspoon of oil per cup is enough to make salt cling without leaving them greasy.
- A moderate ovenAround 350F, though a period 'moderate' oven spanned roughly 350 to 375F. At that heat blanched almonds take about 12 to 15 minutes; stir them once halfway. A slower 325F oven gives more margin before they scorch.
- "Very faintly colored" means stopAlmonds carry enough residual heat to keep browning on the hot pan after they leave the oven. Pull them when they are pale gold, not the color you want them to finish at, and tip them off the pan promptly.
- Fine saltOrdinary table salt or a fine sea salt adheres; coarse flakes mostly fall off. Salting while the nuts are hot and still faintly oiled is what makes it stick, so have the salt ready before the pan comes out.
- Blanching shortcutTen minutes in boiling water is longer than is usually needed; 60 seconds at a rolling boil, then straight into cold water, loosens the skins and keeps the nut firmer.
- Yield and keepingOne cup of nuts makes a small dish for several people as a nibble. Cool completely, then store airtight; they lose their crispness with time and go soft sooner in humid weather.
Salted almonds belonged to the formal dinner table rather than the snack bowl. Through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries they were set out in small dishes alongside olives and celery, to be picked at during the meal. The almonds themselves would have arrived in the shell and unblanched, since shelled and skinned nuts were not the pantry staple they are now, and the tedious business of scalding and slipping the skins is given as much space here as the cooking. Olive oil appears as the first choice with melted butter as the substitute.