Name: Almond Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound almonds; 2 teaspoons rose water; 4 crackers, crushed; 6 eggs; 1 pint milk or cream; 1 pound sugar; ½ pound butter; 4 tablespoons wine

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Almond Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

Blanch the almonds and pound them with rose water to prevent oiling.
Mix the pounded almonds with crushed crackers, eggs, milk or cream, sugar, butter, and wine.
Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

Bake

Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,465 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Almonds: Provide the main body and rich, nutty flavour of the filling.
Eggs: Set during baking to give the pudding its firm structure.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps give the filling a smooth, tender texture.
Milk or cream: Adds moisture so the mixture bakes into a soft, custardy filling.
Crackers: Add body and help thicken the filling as they soak up liquid.