Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Almonds along with all the recipes employing Almonds presented on this site, with 695 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Almonds recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Almonds as a major wild food ingredient.

Almonds are the kernels of the fruit of the Almond tree (Prunus dulcis syn. Prunus amygdalus Batsch) a member of the Prunoideae (apricot and plum) subfamily of the Rosaceae (rose) family. Though native to the Near East almonds were domesticated in the early bronze age and were spread to Europe. The wild forms of the almond tree (which is native to the Levant) has seeds contain large quantities of Hydrogen Cyanide (Prussic Acid) though this has been eliminated in sweet almonds which are safe to eat raw. Bitter almonds, however (apricot kernels), do contain traces of hydrogen cyanide and need to be processed to remove the poisons; they're then used to flavour extracts and liqueurs. The toxins are also destroyed by heat, so bitter almonds can be used in baking.

Sweet almonds are among the most commonly used nuts. They're used in a variety of cuisines, such as European, Middle Eastern and Indian. They can be used as decoration, or for desserts, in sweets and pastries such as praline or the Spanish version of nougat (turron), in macaroons, marzipan and in place of flour in cakes. In savoury dishes they’re used in everything from stuffings to salads and tagines to pilau. Ground almonds (almond flour) is commonly used in baking, either as an adjunct to, or as a gluten-free alternative to, wheat flour. Almonds are commonly sold shelled (i.e., after the shells are removed), or unshelled (i.e., with the shells still attached). Blanched almonds are shelled almonds that have been treated with hot water to soften the seed-coat, which is then removed to reveal the white embryo.

In English, The word almond comes from Old French almande or alemande, which is derived from the Late Latin amandola via the form amingdolouhha from the Greek αμυγδαλη (amygdalē), an almond. The al- in English, for the a- used in other languages may be due a confusion with the Arabic article al; the word having first dropped the a- as in the Italian form mandorla. However the British pronunciation ah-mond and the modern Catalan ametlla and modern French amande show a form of the word closer to the original.

For all the almond-based recipes on this site, see the list of recipes containing almonds. During Medieval and Elizabethan times, almonds were commonly used to make almond milk, the most frequently used-milk equivalent or substitute. This site has a large number of almond milk recipes.