I have been writing about almonds for the past few weeks. Historic recipes, medical advice, agronomy, the whole shebang. I came upon advice in a 16th century French cookbook, the Livre fort excellent de cuysine, that raw almonds should be soaked in water one day and night and then peeled. I was always under the impression that to get the skins off you need to blanch them, and most cookbooks say just that. Drop in boiling water, remove, and the peels do come off easily. Why then these different i
