Homemade Orgeat Syrup (French Barley Water)

I am a fiend for orgeat syrup. There is just something magic in seeing these little drop of sweet syrup turn a whole bottle of Evian into an opalescent mist. It tastes like a milky relative of amaretto but has no alcohol. I never knew how orgeat syrup was made until I saw a recipe in the Larousse des Desserts, which is illustrated step-by-step on this page.

Modern orgeat syrup is made from almonds, but originally it was literally barley water, a decoction of raw barley sweetened with sugar. At some point people started adding bitter almonds for flavor and then realized that the barley itself, for all its virtues, does not bring much by way of flavor and it is dropped altogether in modern recipes.

Replacing barley with almonds in orgeat syrup has a well-established tradition. Sure, some will argue this is no longer true barley water. But it sure tastes good. I found an amusing discussion of this culinary problem in Diderot's monumental Encyclopédie (under 'Orgeat' in Volume 11 'N - Parkinsone' published in December 1765). Orge is French for barley.

ORGEAT, SYRUP OF. Orgeat syrup is called like this because pharmacopeas require a barley decoction rather than plain water. But barley ruins its taste without adding any virtues. So all master apothecaries, who know how to evaluate theoretical rules according to their own practical experiences, steer clear of using barley decoction when making orgeat syrup; & it is not easy to decide wether this infidelity deserves more contempt when found at the minister's than when charlatanism or routine is found at the law-maker's.

This recipe is modern and focuses on taste. Orgeat syrup is not a medicine although I would enjoy being sick much more if medicines tasted like this.

Roughly chop the whole almonds.

Pour 400gr of caster sugar in a large pot.

Add the chopped almonds and the ground almonds.

Add 2 liters/quarts mineral water and bring to a boil.

Leave to rest for 12 hours.

Strain through a cheesecloth.

Prepare a large bowl, the rest of the sugar and a kitchen scale. Heat syrup bottles by pouring boiling water into them. Here I used empt y store-bought syrup bottles - you can still see the labels!

Weight the strained liquid.

Add 700gr caster sugar for every 500gr of strained liquid. Put the pot on a low flame and heat carefully to dissolve sugar.

If you are not careful and let the syrup boil, all sorts of evils will fall upon you. First the pot will spill over a sticky almond-sugar decoction like it did above. Then the sugar will burn and your syrup might not dissolve anymore, stuck forever in Baumé hell between syrup and caramel. Please be careful. Some authors (see below) recommend not heating more than 40C°.

Leave to cool before adding the extra flavorings if you like them. A few drops of bitter almond extract, rose water and orange water. If you add while the syrup is hot, their flavor might evaporate.

Please note that I my syrup is golden in color although when dissolved in water its turns milky. I think the golden color comes from my using unblanched almond powder rather than white powder.

Real orgeat syrup will split after a few days in a thick, solid white layer of almond powder on top and syrup below. This is normal and happens with quality bought orgeat syrup such as the one I used to buy from Hédiard in Paris. All you need is insert a skewer in the bottle to break the top layer a bit, close and shake. This is really part of the fun in this product and a hallmark of quality orgeat syrup.

If you are interested about why this happens read an authoritative discussion in the 1857 Traité de pharmacie théorique et pratique v. 2 By Eugene Soubeiran.