On Food and Cooking

cultivated almond, Prunus amygdalus, came
from western Asia and had been domesticated
by the Bronze Age. California is now the
largest producer. Thanks to their high content
of antioxidant vitamin E and low levels of
polyunsaturated fats, almonds have a
relatively long shelf life.
Almonds are the main ingredient in
marzipan, a paste of sugar and almonds finely
ground together and molded and dried into
decorative shapes, a Middle Eastern invention
that became popular in Europe during the
medieval Crusades. Leonardo da Vinci made
marzipan sculptures for the Milanese court of
Ludovico Sforza in 1470, and wrote that he
“observed with pain that [they] gobble up all
the sculptures I give them, right to the last
morsel.” Almond paste is also commonly used
as a pastry filling or the base for macaroons,
cookies whose only other structural ingredient
is egg whites.