To Blanch and to Pound Almonds

Instructions

1. Put the almonds into a saucepan with plenty of cold water, and heat it slowly.
2. When it is just scalding, turn the almonds into a basin, peel them, and throw them into cold water as they are done.
3. Dry them well in a soft cloth before they are used. If the water be too hot it will turn them yellow.
4. Almonds are more easily pounded, and less liable to become oily, if dried a little in a very gentle degree of heat after they are blanched: left, for example, in a warm room for two or three days, lightly spread on a large dish or tin.
5. Sprinkle them during the beating with a few drops of cold water, or white of egg, or lemon-juice, and pound them to a smooth paste.
6. Acton's note: this is more easily done, she believes, when they are first roughly chopped, but she prefers to have them thrown at once into the mortar.