Home brew orgeat - Tiki Drinks and Food

TG The Gnomon Member MD-DC-VA Joined: May 01, 2007 Posts: 1293	TG The Gnomon Posted posted on Thu, Aug 21, 2008 8:28 AM On 2008-08-20 18:16, Sparkle Mark wrote: I have found a great recipe with photos et al for making home made orgeat. Nice article, but I disagree with the recipe. IMO the almonds should be chopped/ground much finer to allow more surface area to be exposed to the water and, being smaller nuggetrines, allowing the almond oil to emulsify quicker and more completely. Slightly heating the almond bath can accelerate the emulsion a little but I think it detracts from the quality of the milk compared to soaking it longer instead. Boiling is definitely out of the question. I would also avoid the almond powder (i.e., anything that is small enough to get through the strainer) and avoid the bitter almond extract. There is enough incidental almond powder created in the nuggetrine chopping/grinding process not to add any more. That powder is responsible for the layering that forms at the top, which IMO should be as minimal as possible. The almonds used are not bitter almonds, whereas the pure almond extract you get at the supermarket is made from bitter almonds. I prefer to preserve the original almond flavor from the emulsion rather than mask it with a different kind of almond flavor. If you are going to use almond extract to doctor the flavor, you might as well make your orgeat out of rice or barley and then use almond extract to flavor it. When making the syrup, it is better not to cause the almond particles and residual oils to turn brown, so reducing the liquid slowly without boiling is highly recommended. The rule of thumb is to not ever bring the sugar and almond milk to a boil, but rather to a half boil (50°C) monitored by using a candy thermometer. I don't usually have the patience to stick to that guideline, so I step it up and just stir and watch it for a long time. The idea is to cause the excess water to evaporate as quickly as possible without boiling. Toasted orgeat ain't bad, really. If you do let the almond micro-particles and oils turn brown (with me from not paying attention to the batch). My orgeats typically have a slight caramel tinge to them because I'll often use turbinado sugar. Anyway. That's my 2½¢.

On 2008-08-20 18:16, Sparkle Mark wrote:
I have found a great recipe with photos et al for making home made orgeat.

Nice article, but I disagree with the recipe.

IMO the almonds should be chopped/ground much finer to allow more surface area to be exposed to the water and, being smaller nuggetrines, allowing the almond oil to emulsify quicker and more completely.

Slightly heating the almond bath can accelerate the emulsion a little but I think it detracts from the quality of the milk compared to soaking it longer instead. Boiling is definitely out of the question.

I would also avoid the almond powder (i.e., anything that is small enough to get through the strainer) and avoid the bitter almond extract. There is enough incidental almond powder created in the nuggetrine chopping/grinding process not to add any more. That powder is responsible for the layering that forms at the top, which IMO should be as minimal as possible. The almonds used are not bitter almonds, whereas the pure almond extract you get at the supermarket is made from bitter almonds. I prefer to preserve the original almond flavor from the emulsion rather than mask it with a different kind of almond flavor. If you are going to use almond extract to doctor the flavor, you might as well make your orgeat out of rice or barley and then use almond extract to flavor it.

When making the syrup, it is better not to cause the almond particles and residual oils to turn brown, so reducing the liquid slowly without boiling is highly recommended. The rule of thumb is to not ever bring the sugar and almond milk to a boil, but rather to a half boil (50°C) monitored by using a candy thermometer. I don't usually have the patience to stick to that guideline, so I step it up and just stir and watch it for a long time. The idea is to cause the excess water to evaporate as quickly as possible without boiling.

Toasted orgeat ain't bad, really. If you do let the almond micro-particles and oils turn brown (with me from not paying attention to the batch). My orgeats typically have a slight caramel tinge to them because I'll often use turbinado sugar.

Anyway. That's my 2½¢.

Post #402812 by The Gnomon on Thu, Aug 21, 2008 8:28 AM