Orgeat Syrup, the Creole Almond Syrup from 1920
Reader ratingsAlmonds pounded to a paste with lemon zest, pressed into almond milk, boiled with sugar and scented with orange-flower water: the orgeat syrup of a 1920 drinks book.
- Recipe makes
- About 350 ml syrup, enough for about 12 glasses of orgeat lemonade
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Includes about 30 minutes for the syrup to cool before the orange-flower water goes in.
Orgeat syrup in a corked bottle, with a mortar of crushed almonds, blanched almonds and lemon zest.
The story behind the recipe
Orgeat syrup is almond milk turned into a keeping syrup: almonds pounded to a paste, pressed through a bag with water, boiled with sugar and finished with orange-flower water. Bertha Stockbridge printed this one in New York in 1920 as “Orgeat Syrup (Créole Recipe),” and she meant it for mixing, not for drinking on its own. “A very little of this syrup used in drinks where a mixture of fruits is used will be found most satisfactory.”
From a sickroom drink to a bottle on the shelf
Orgeat began as a drink. In 1807 Maria Rundell’s cookbook gave it as almonds beaten with orange-flower water and let down with milk and water, among her drinks for invalids, and that version is on our pages as Orgeat, Almond Milk with Orange-Flower Water. By the bar books of the 1880s it had become a syrup, measured out by the spoonful. Stockbridge’s book came out in the year national Prohibition began, and its whole subject was drinks without alcohol. Her orgeat takes a pound of sweet almonds and four ounces of bitter ones to two pounds of sugar, and she warns that the almond oil can rise in the bottle, so it should be watched and shaken now and then.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
The bitter almonds are the one thing we don’t copy. Raw bitter almonds can contain high levels of cyanide, and Food Standards Scotland advises people not to eat them raw. We use extra sweet almonds in their place and a little pure almond extract for the marzipan note. Her method boils the almond milk with “plain syrup” but doesn’t say how much water that syrup takes, so we dissolve the sugar straight into the almond milk, our choice. This is a quarter of her batch. A spoonful sweetens a fruit drink or the Orgeat Lemonade. How Americans drank without alcohol, before and after 1920, is in Historic Alcohol-Free Drinks.
Recipe makes: About 350 ml syrup, enough for about 12 glasses of orgeat lemonade
Ingredients
My drinksFor About 350 ml syrup, enough for about 12 glasses of orgeat lemonade. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for About 350 ml syrup, enough for about 12 glasses of orgeat lemonade.
- Blanched almonds145 g
- Strip lemon zest1
- Cold water240 ml
- Sugar225 g
- Orange-flower water1 metric tbsp (15 ml per tbsp)
- Pure almond extract1/4 metric tsp (5 ml per tsp)
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 145 g blanched almonds
- 1 strip lemon zest
- 240 ml cold water
- 225 g sugar
- 1 tbsp orange-flower water
- 1/4 tsp pure almond extract
Equipment
Mortar and pestle, or a food processor
Nut-milk bag or a sieve lined with muslin
Medium saucepan
Clean glass bottle
Instructions
Put the blanched almonds and the lemon zest in a mortar or food processor with a teaspoon of the cold water, and crush them to a smooth paste, adding a few more drops of water as you go.
Stir in half the remaining water, then squeeze the mixture hard through a nut-milk bag or a muslin-lined sieve into a saucepan.
Put the almond pulp back in the bowl, add the rest of the water, stir and squeeze it through the bag again into the pan.
Add the sugar to the almond milk and heat it gently, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Bring it to a gentle boil and boil for 5 minutes, stirring all the time so it doesn’t catch on the bottom.
Take it off the heat and let it cool, about 30 minutes. Stir in the orange-flower water and the pure almond extract.
Strain it once more through the bag into a clean bottle, close it and keep it in the fridge. Shake it before use, since the almond oil rises to the top.
Nutrition
110calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 350 ml syrup, enough for about 12 glasses of orgeat lemonade
- Servings
- 12
Roughly estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for granulated sugar and blanched almonds, assuming about half the almond solids pass through the cloth, for 30 ml of syrup, the amount in one glass of orgeat lemonade.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
This is a quarter of Stockbridge’s batch. Keep about 2 parts sugar to 1 part almonds by weight, and 1 part water to 1 part sugar.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Changes from the source: we leave out the four ounces of bitter almonds and use extra sweet almonds and almond extract, for safety. We dissolve the sugar in the almond milk instead of making a separate plain syrup, and we make a quarter of her batch. Stockbridge blanches her own almonds in cold water and crushes them with a little lemon zest; buying them blanched is our shortcut.
She bottles and stores it. Home almond syrup has no preservative, so keep it in the fridge and use it within a week, our cautious advice.
It contains tree nuts.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
Bertha E. L. Stockbridge, What to Drink: The Blue Book of Beverages (New York and London: D. Appleton and Company, 1920), “Orgeat Syrup (Créole Recipe),” pp. 73–74
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-free
- Drink family
- Shrubs, Syrups & Cordials
- Region
- American
- Source decade
- 1920s
- Base
- Almonds
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Occasion
- Dry January