Bitter almond

“ ALMONDS. Flowers.—They have a cathartic effect, and especially to children have been successfully given in the character of a vermifuge for this purpose; an infusion of a dram of the flowers dried, or half an ounce in their recent state, is the requisite dose. The expressed oil of almonds has been for a long time, and is at present, in use for many purposes in medicine. The concentrated acid of the bitter almond is a most dangerous poison to man and all other animals. ”

“ The almond tree grows wild, but is also cultivated in Southern Europe, Africa, Barbary, Palestine and Syria. The bitter almonds brought from Barbary are considered the best. Besides, in almonds, amygdalin occurs in various other plants; for instance, in the leaves of the cherry laurel, the leaves and kernels of the peach, the kernels of the black cherry and other varieties of prunus and amygdalus, they all yielding, after maceration with water, a distillate containing prussic acid and oil of bitter almonds. ”

“ The water distilled from the bitter almond, when strongly impregnated, has been found to exert a deleterious action on the human body, and to prove fatal to many animals. Solubility. By trituration with water a milky mixture is produced, (an emulsion) , for which purpose the sweet almonds should be previously freed from their cuticle, (blanched) , and this ought to be performed by infusing them in tepid water; for when hot it separates a portion of their oil, as is evident from their being thus rendered yellow, and the emulsion is therefore more liable to ferment, and be decomposed. ”

“ Almond Paste—Orgeat Paste.—One pound of sweet almonds, a quarter of a pound of bitter almonds, two pounds of sugar. Blanch the almonds, and throw them into clear cold water as they are done, to preserve their whiteness; let them soak for a day, then dry them in a cloth, and pound them quite fine in a mortar, sprinkling them with orange-flower water or lemon juice to prevent their oiling; then with [Pg 29] a spatula rub them through a fine wire sieve; what will not pass through, pound again until they are quite fine; clarify the sugar and boil it to the ball ”

“ The essential oil of bitter almonds is very poisonous. “The oil does not, like common essential oils, exist ready formed in the almond, but it is only produced when the almond pulp comes in contact with water. It cannot be separated by any process whatever from the almond without the co-operation of water—neither, for example, by pressing out the fixed oil, nor by the action of ether, nor by the action of absolute alcohol. After the almond is exhausted by ether, the remaining pulp gives the essential oil as soon as it is moistened ”

“ Sweet Almonds include the large thin-shelled Jordan (from the French jardin) , the Valencia almond, imported as a dessert fruit from Malaga, the smaller Barbary and Italian forms, and the California product. The Bitter Almond yields an essential oil, employed in confectionery, but dangerous from sometimes containing prussic acid.
Apple (Pyrus Malus) , grows wild in forests, but it is found artificially improved everywhere in gardens and orchards. Its bark is generally smooth; its wood somewhat soft; its leaves oval-shaped and about double the length of their stalks ”

“ They knew how to graft medlars on coffee trees, which then produced an entirely new fruit, exceedingly luscious and fragrant. When they wanted the bitter almond to bear sweet almonds, they took counsel of Theophrastus and drove iron nails into the roots. They knew the good and bad effects of winter upon all kinds of garden produce. ”

“ It is also said that the almond becomes sweet, instead of bitter, if one digs round the stem and, having bored a hole about a palms-breadth, allows the gum which exudes from all sides [23] to flow down into it and collect. ”

“ If these almonds be eaten freely, they occasion sickness and vomiting; and, to many quadrupeds and birds, they are a fatal poison. There was formerly a notion, but it is an erroneous one, that the eating of them would prevent the intoxicating effects of wine. They are frequently used, instead of apricot kernels, in ratafia, and sometimes are employed in making a counterfeit cherry-brandy. The oil and emulsions of bitter almonds are used in medicine: and a powder and paste, for washing the hands is made both from them and from sweet almonds. ”

“ The good almonds come from Barbary and the south of France.{118} When young, they are preserved like green apricots. They are eaten at table, fresh or dry; in comfits, pastry, &c.: they are also used to make orgeat and refreshing emulsions. The oil extracted from almonds, even bitter ones, is very sweet; it is best extracted cold, by pressure. The pulp is employed, under the name of almond paste, for several purposes, one of which is to render the skin soft and flexible. ”

“ Into cookery, confectionery, perfumery, and medicine, they largely enter, and in domestic economy, should always be used in preference to bitter almonds. The reason for advising this, is because the kernels do not contain any hydrocyanic or prussic acid, although it is found in the leaves, flowers, and bark of the tree. When young and green, they are preserved in sugar, like green apricots. ”

“ The medical treatment of trees in a great degree resembles that of man, seeing that in certain cases the bones of them both are perforated even.3238 The bitter almond will become sweet, if, after spading round the trunk and cleaning it, the lowermost part of it is pierced all round, so that the humours may have a passage for escape and ensure being removed. ”

“ After this add another pint and a half of stock if the soup is to be a vegetable one, or rice water if milk has been used.
An emulsion of almonds is useful in chest affections. It is made by well macerating the nuts in a nut butter machine, and mixing with orange or lemon juice.
Almonds should always be blanched, that is, skinned by pouring boiling water on the nuts and allowing them to soak for one minute, after which the skins are easily removed. The latter possess irritating properties. [Pg 16]
Bitter almonds should not be used as a food. They contain a poison identical with prussic acid. ”

“ BITTER ALMONDS are in no respect different from sweet almonds, either as to the appearance of the kernels themselves, or the trees which produce them, except somewhat in the size of the flowers and fruit. Like sweet almonds, they yield a large portion of oil. ”

“ According to Rhases, they are apt to prove injurious to the stomach and liver.
The Siphnian Diphilus says that almonds are attenuant, diuretic, purgative, and afford little nourishment; that the green contain bad juices, and are possessed of stronger medicinal properties; but that the dried are more flatulent, and apter to swim on the stomach. He adds that such as are tender, full, and are whitened, contain milky juices which are more wholesome. Simeon Seth says that bitter almonds are hotter, more attenuant, and more incisive than the ripe. ”

“ The essences usually sold are made by adding half an ounce of pure oil to one pint of spirits of wine.
Bergamot, Essence of.—From the peel of the bergamot lemon.
Bitter Almonds, Essence of.—This is obtained by distilling the cake or residue of the almonds after the oil has been expressed from them. It is a deadly poison, containing prussic acid, like all other nuts or leaves which possess the bitter principle. Flies drop dead when passing over the still when it is in operation. The essence usually sold is one ounce of oil to seven ounces of rectified spirit. ”

“ The bitter matter in decaying apples is highly injurious when swallowed, which it isn't likely to be by anybody who ever tastes it. Wormwood and walnut-shells contain other bitter and poisonous principles; absinthe, which is made from one of them, is a favourite slow poison with the fashionable young men of Paris, who wish to escape prematurely from 'Le monde où l'on s'ennuie.' But prussic acid is the commonest component in all natural bitters, being found in bitter almonds, apple pips, the kernels of mangosteens, and many other seeds and fruits. ”

“ It is said that if five bitter almonds are taken by a person before sitting down to drink, he will be proof against inebriation;3159 and that foxes, if they eat bitter almonds,3160 will be sure to die immediately, if they cannot find water to lap. ”

“ The crude oil of bitter almonds is agitated with a moderately dilute solution of protochloride of iron which has been previously mixed with fresh hydrate of lime in excess, and the whole, after having been placed in a retort connected with a suitable receiver, is subjected to distillation. ”

“ Every one knows that the goodies in crackers are not of a very superior quality. There is a large amount of white lead in the outside thinly disguised by a shabby flavour of sugar. But that outside once disposed of, there lies an almond at the core. Now an almond is a very delicious thing in itself, and doubly nice when it takes the taste of white paint and chalk out of one's mouth. But in spite of all the white lead and sugar and chalk through which he had sucked his way, MacGreedy could not come to the almond. A dozen times had he been on the point of spitting out the delusive sweetmeat ”

“ Besides, this fruit had not always so mean a destination: the disciples of Apicius made of it one of the most delicate of dishes. Here it is, as taught to them by their master:—
Take almonds that have been pounded in a mortar, and mix them with honey, pepper, garum, milk, eggs, and a little oil; submit the whole to the action of a slow fire. [XIV_6]
The ancients were acquainted with the oil of almonds, [XIV_7] of which they made nearly the same use as we do ourselves; but they possessed, in addition, an infallible means of augmenting the fertility of the almond tree. ”

“ They rise from their budded, intact humbleness near the ground, they rise up, they throw up their crystal, they become handsome, they are heaps of confident, mysterious whiteness in the shadow of a rocky stream. It is almost uncanny to see them. They are the flowers of darkness, white and wonderful beyond belief.
Then their radiance becomes soiled and brown, they thaw, break, and scatter and vanish away. Already the primroses are coming out, and the almond is in bud. The winter is passing away. ”

“ The shells are then subjected to the fumes of burning sulphur for 10 to 30 minutes. The sulphur fumes are absorbed by the moisture on the shells, which are bleached to a bright yellow color. After bleaching the nuts are exposed to the air for a few moments to allow them to dry. The market demands a nut that has been sufficiently bleached to give it a bright, clean, yellow color. An over-bleached almond is equally objectionable because of its pale, sickly, yellow or whitish color. ”

“ And Phrynichus says—
The almond is a good cure for a cough.
And others speak of almonds as beautiful. But Tryphon in his book on Attic Prosody accents ἀμυγδάλη, when meaning [87] the fruit, with a grave accent, which we use in the neuter as ἀμύγδαλον. But he writes ἀμυγδαλῆ, with a circumflex for the tree; it being as it were a possessive form derived from the fruit, and as such contracted and circumflexed.
Pamphilus in his Dictionary says that the μυκηρόβατον is called the nut-cracker by the Lacedæmonians, when they mean the almond-cracker; for the Lacedæmonians call almonds μούκηροι. ”

“ I had a small world, but it was large enough, since it was bounded by garden walls.
Almond trees are seldom seen in northern gardens; but the Flowering Almond flourishes as one of the purest and loveliest familiar shrubs. Silvery pink in bloom when it opens, the pink darkens till when in full flower it is deeply rosy. It was, next to the Lilac, the favorite shrub of my childhood. I used to call the exquisite little blooms "fairy roses," and there were many fairy tales relating to the Almond bush. This made the flower enhaloed with sentiment and mystery, which charmed as much as its beauty. ”

“ It is most frequently found where trees are planted in heavy or poorly drained soils. The inability of the almond to endure standing water around its roots for any length of time and particularly so after growth commences in the spring, renders it especially liable to sour-sap when planted in soils where excess water from the late winter and spring rains cannot be readily drained away. The direct cause of the trouble is sudden changes in weather from warm to cold after growth commences, which checks the flow of sap very suddenly, causing stagnation, cracking of the bark and then fermentation. ”

“ Those almonds now, I'll strip off that husk, when one discounts A life or two in a nigger row With the man who grew them, it does seem how They would come dear; and then the fight At sea perhaps, our boats have heels And mostly they sail along at night, But once in a way they're caught; one feels Ivory's not better nor finer—why peels From an almond kernel are worth two sous. It's hard to sell them now," he sighed. "Purses are tight, but I shall not lose. There's plenty of cheaper things to choose." He picked some currants out of a wide Earthen bowl. ”

“ Soil Handling.—The almond is one of the most exacting of fruits as regards its cultivation. The assumption is very often made by growers that because the tree will live through periods of prolonged drouth, it will also thrive under careless or poor methods of cultivation. That this is entirely erroneous may be inferred from the fact previously referred to that the almond draws more heavily upon the plant food of the soil for the ripening of its crop than any of the common orchard fruits. ”

“ As with other fruit trees, the almond is subject to heart-rot and care should always be exercised to prevent the checking and cracking of large wounds and consequent infection with decay organisms. The hardness of the wood makes it the finest kind of fuel, and when old orchards are being dug up the returns from the sale of wood often more than pay for the expense of digging and cutting up the trees and burning the brush. ”