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Dessert

Almond

A boiled almond pudding made with sweet and bitter almonds, milk, sugar, flour, breadcrumbs, eggs, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pound the sweet and bitter almonds with a little milk.

  2. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

Cook

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold.

  2. Boil for 45 minutes.

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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the pudding and set it into a firm, sliceable custard as they cook.
Whites of 2 eggs
Whisked to stiff froth, they add lightness and airiness to the pudding.
Sweet almonds
Provide the main nutty flavour and body of the pudding once pounded.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that moistens the mixture and gives a soft, tender texture.
Flour
Thickens the mixture slightly so it holds its shape when boiled.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold. Butter keeps the cooked pudding from sticking to the mold, so it can be turned out whole and intact.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, milk, sugar, flour, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Turmericfits less well
  4. Jalapenofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, milk, sugar, flour, 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.

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