Why it works: Almond and pine match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 176 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
German Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Add the pounded almonds and pine nuts or peanuts to the boiled custard, then mix in the candied citron.
Chill the custard in the refrigerator for several hours before serving.
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.
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Almond + pinetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together176 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet almonds
- Adds body, nutty flavour and texture to the custard once pounded.
- Pine nuts or peanuts
- Add a richer nutty flavour and a finely textured crunch to the custard.
- Rich boiled custard
- Forms the creamy base that holds the other ingredients together.
- Candied citron
- Adds sweetness, aroma and chewy bits of citrus flavour.
The step that matters
Chill the custard for several hours. Cooling lets the custard thicken and set fully, and the flavours of the nuts and citron blend. Serving it too soon leaves it loose and less cohesive.
“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.
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