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Dessert

Almond Pudding

A baked pudding made with almonds, tapioca, sponge cakes, milk, brandy, eggs, curd, butter, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pound the almonds finely in a mortar with tapioca, adding a little cream or milk to prevent oiling.

  2. In a basin, combine sponge cakes and milk, then add brandy.

  3. Whisk the eggs until frothy.

  4. Beat the sponge cakes smooth.

Mix and bake

  1. Mix all ingredients lightly together, adding curd, butter, and sugar to taste.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a dish, garnish with sliced almonds, and bake in a warm oven.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Sponge cakes
Soak up the milk and brandy to give the pudding a soft, tender body.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the mixture and softening the sponge.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, smoother texture.
Tapioca
Thickens the mixture slightly as it cooks, adding body.

The step that matters

Pound the almonds finely with a little cream or milk. Almonds release oil when ground, which can make the pudding greasy. Adding a little liquid helps keep the paste smooth and the oil dispersed.

“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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