Top 5 Shocking Things You Never Knew about Your Food

Almond Nut

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4. Almond Extract Isn’t Always Made From Almonds

Although pure almond extract should be made from alcohol, water, and bitter almond extract, the truth is that bitter almonds belong to a family of stone producing fruits such as peaches and apricots. So it’s much more common for the “bitter almond flavor” to be removed from the pits of these fruits rather than from almonds.

Cooks Illustrated did research on the top four manufacturers of almond extract and found the following:

One company used apricots

One company used a combination of peaches, cherries, plums, as well as almonds

Another one admitted that they did use the stones of fruits but declined to say which fruit

Only one company did use only bitter almonds in their extract

You might feel cheated knowing this but here is an interesting point. When Cooks Illustrated did taste tests of these four almond extracts, the company whose product actually contained only bitter almonds was rated as the weakest tasting among the four.

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