Recipe scrapbooks (1920s) – Queso de Almendra / Almond Cheese
Recipe Scrapbooks : Huamantla, Tlaxcala, Mexico. TX716 .M4 R436 1920z v.2. P. 6.
Queso de Almendra (also Queso de Almendras) is a traditional Christmas sweet from San Luis Potosí. Something like a rich nougat, this candy is usually pressed into a mold to cool [1]. This particular recipe is a little bit unusual in that it calls for the end result to be broken up in a metate instead and then served drizzled with simple syrup and cinnamon.
Queso de Almendra
Se hace almíbar de punto de bolsa con dos libros de azúcar mezclándole una libra de almendra pelada y molida y así que esté frio se le pone 16 yemas bien batidas, pónese otra vez al fuego hasta que tomo punto de pasta.
Se muele en el metate se hace el queso, se humedece de almíbar y se cubre de canela en polvo.
M.C.P. Querétaro, Qro.
Almond Cheese
Combine 4 cups of sugar with 1 pound of peeled, ground almonds. Add 2 cups water and cook mixture till it reaches the thread stage (230-235*F). Once the syrup cools, add 16 well-beaten egg yolks and return to the heat to cook until it forms a paste.
Grind the mixture in a metate to make the cheese, moisten with more simple syrup and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Note: simple syrup is 1 cup sugar to 1 cup water. All Recipes offers a basic recipe: https://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-syrup/.
Recipe Notes:
This recipe contains several opportunities for confusion. First, it does not actually mention adding water and sugar during the initial stage. I was also unable to determine what temperature “punto de bolsa” refers to in candy-making terms. Nor does the recipe clearly explain how much the syrup needs to cool prior to adding the egg yolks, although presumably it simply needs to be cool enough not to immediately cook and curdle the eggs.
Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita states that the first stage of Queso de Almendra should be heated to the soft-ball stage (235-245) [2]. However, certain some other recipes, including this one from Director al Palador [3] clearly call for the mixture to be cooked to a syrup-stage, and the scrapbook recipe does refer to the mixture as a syrup. I suspect, but cannot confirm, that “punto de bolsa” means something similar to almíbar a punto de hebra fina or hebra gruesa but it could also refer to punto de bola suave.
[1]Muñoz Zurita. Ricardo. Diccionario enciclopédico de gastronomía mexicana (México : Editorial Clío : Fundación Herdez, 2000): 485.
[2] ibid.
[3] Trujillo, Juana. Queso de Almendras. Receta. Directo al Palador. 24 February 2010. https://www.directoalpaladar.com/postres/queso-de-almendras-receta.
