SC - Elizabeth Burton

[Christine A Seelye-King]

In a message dated 5/26/00 9:25:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
lilinah at earthlink.net writes:

<< 
 1) How necessary is it really to remove the skins from the raw 
 almonds before grinding? Do the skins impart an unpleasant flavor? Or 
 is the objection just that the milk is less white? Or is there some 
 other reason? I am using the almond milk for Andalusian and Near 
 Eastern recipes which call for water as the diluant. Some European 
 recipes call for wine or verjus as the liquid or in addition to 
 water. Will either of these liquids interact differently with the 
 almond skins than water?
  >>
    I'm lazy, and hate the tedium of skinning almonds, so I often leave the 
skins on if the dish will be dark when I'm through. I haven't noticed a major 
flavor/texture difference, even when the pulp is left in the dish. It does 
help to grind the nuts in a coffee/spice grinder, rather than a blender or 
food processor, though--you get a much finer grind, which reduces the 
detectability of the skins.........
    Also, I store my bags of nuts in the freezer routinely, and the only ill 
effects I've noticed are the occasional off odors from the chopped leeks 
stored next to them, and such........... (G) I would certainly plan to freeze 
any pre-ground almonds, rather than even refrigerating them. I don't imagine 
that they'd keep well at all!

                Ldy Diana