Recipe no. 568 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 250.
Ingredients
- sweet almonds
- bitter almonds
- water
- sugar
- orange flower water
Preparation
- Peel the almondsThrow 500 grams of sweet almonds and 150 grams of bitter ones into boiling water, let soak 2 minutes, then drain to remove their skin.
- PoundPut the almonds in the mortar with half a glass of water and pound very finely, adding gradually another half litre of water, until obtaining a very liquid emulsion.
- Set up the bain-mariePut it all in a saucepan set inside another larger one containing boiling water; add to the emulsion another litre of water, 3 kilos of crushed sugar and half a glass of orange flower water.
- Melt and strainLeave in the bain-marie until the sugar is melted, then strain through a very clean cloth.
- Cool and bottleLet cool covered in an earthenware dish and bottle it; keep in a cool place, especially during summer, as this syrup ferments easily.
Reboul's text
Take 500 grams of sweet almonds and 150 grams of bitter ones, throw them into boiling water, let them soak 2 minutes, then drain them to remove their skin. Put them in the mortar with half a glass of water, pound them very finely, adding gradually another half litre of water; you should then have obtained a very liquid emulsion. Put it all in a saucepan that you will set inside another larger one containing boiling water; add to the emulsion another litre of water, 3 kilos of crushed sugar and half a glass of orange flower water.
Leave it thus in the bain-marie until the sugar is melted; then strain through a very clean cloth. Let cool covered in an earthenware dish and bottle it. Keep in a cool place, especially during summer, as this syrup ferments easily.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| aigo | boiling water |
| atrempa | to soak |
| agouta | to drain |
| mourtié | mortar |
| casseirolo | saucepan |
| sucre | sugar |
| mauno | orange flowers |
| ban-marìo | bain-marie |
| tian | earthenware dish |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 568, page 250. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.