Post #405464 by The Gnomon on Tue, Sep 2, 2008 6:34 AM

On 2008-08-21 12:12, The Gnomon wrote:

On 2008-08-21 11:43, Sparkle Mark wrote:
I would have to disagree with you about the addition of bitter almond extract or essential oil. We do not have access to bitter almonds, and traditional Orgeat according to the Grocer's Encyclopedia is made from 10 parts sweet almonds and 3 parts bitter, so I would argue that the addition of bitter almond flavoring would not be out of bounds in making a traditional orgeat. I don't think anyone has actually made Orgeat from barley for a while.

Hmmm! I might have to rethink the bitter almond component at this point. That would justify the use of almond extract considering it is the only readily available source of bitter almond flavoring.

I made a batch of Emergency Orgeat this weekend and ruined it by using almond extract. I'm willing to try it again, but next time I'll only use 1 or two drops instead of six. The stuff now tastes like the center of an almond pastry, which just ain't right.

On a different note, some of you may recall that I reported, when Pacific, screwed up its almond milk by offering it in a "new improved" formula. It had a better almond flavor than most other almond-milk-in-a-box (e.g., Almond Breeze—unsweetened of course), but it was infested with sediment, much of which clinged together as globules suspended in the milk. It rendered the orgeat very cloudy and always retained some of the globules.

This weekend I took the trouble of pouring the Pacific Almond through coffee filters until I had enough to make a batch. It clogs the coffee filters pretty quickly, so you have to go through lots of them, but at least, when that chore is over with, the orgeat ends up with an extremely thin foam layer and is clearer than the pre-improved Pacific product.

Too bad I had to ruin it by using six drops of almond extract.