Skip to main content
Dessert

Almond

A sweet almond pudding made with honey, black pepper, garum, milk, eggs, and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Honey and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,336 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Almond

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Pound the almonds in a mortar until fine.

  2. Mix the pounded almonds with honey, black pepper, garum, milk, eggs, and oil.

Cook

  1. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

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.

  1. Honey + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Almond + honeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

  4. Honey + peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,990 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Almond + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,566 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 thickening solids once pounded fine.
Eggs
Their proteins set as they heat, thickening the pudding into a custard.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, and its proteins help the custard set smoothly.
Honey
Adds sweetness and a soft, moist texture.
Oil
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel.
Garum
Adds savory depth, balancing the sweetness of the honey.

The step that matters

Cooking over low heat while stirring constantly. Egg proteins set gently at moderate temperatures. Too much heat or no stirring can scramble the eggs and curdle the mixture, leaving it grainy instead of smooth and thickened.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (honey, pepper, fish sauce, milk, egg):

  1. Peanutfits better
  2. Peasfits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against honey, pepper, fish sauce, milk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More almond pudding recipes

Baked 26Boiled 20Lemon 13Chocolate 6Chestnut 5Frozen 3 See all 210 →

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes