SC - Almond butter?

[Christine A Seelye-King]

As Bear has said, for a product called almond butter, you would grind the
almonds into a paste.  If you roast the almonds first, you will get a
richer flavor.  
However, if you are talking about a creamy cheese/spread made from almond
milk, that is also a period use of the almond.  After making almond milk
(grinding blanched, peeled almonds with water until all of the milky
solids have drained out - this process requires several re-grindings,
usually about 4, so that one pound of almonds will yield approx. 1 gallon
of milk), the liquid is placed in a deep pot and brought to a boil, a
small amount of sugar and some rosewater is called for in some recipes. 
After the liquid has foamed up (the reason for the deep pot, as it will
try to boil over just like boiling cow's milk),  it is removed from the
heat and poured into a strainer lined with a clean kitchen cloth.  The
'whey' is drained out of the milk, and after about an hour or more of
this, the solids left behind will bind together in a form resembling
softly whipped cream cheese or stiff sour cream.  If I recall correctly,
the cloth is squeezed at the end to finish the draining and to help the
mass bind together.   It is delightful on wafers or other mildly flavored
foods.  We have eaten it for breakfast, lunch and dinner on various
things, and it is delicious.  I have not tried it without the sugar and
rosewater to see if the sugar makes a difference in it's texture, but I
think it would be very good as a non-sweet as well.  I can easily see
using this product as a dairy substitute during a Lenten fast, for
example.  
The store-bought almond milks will not work for this sort of recipe,
because they lack the almond oils and solids necessary.  
Christianna

On Fri, 19 Jan 2001 12:03:49 +0000 kirsty <kirsty at dcs.st-and.ac.uk>
writes:
> Talking about almond milk I am cureouse to know how to make almond
> Butter/ cream/ cheese etc. dose anyone know?

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