Why it works: Almond and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Almond Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Blanch the almonds and pound them in a mortar.
Butter a pudding dish that holds a little more than 2 quarts or use two small ones.
Make the custard
Put the milk in a double boiler, reserving ½ cup.
Add the pounded almonds to the milk.
Mix the rice flour with the reserved cold milk and stir into the boiling milk.
Cook for 6 minutes and let cool.
When about half cooled, add the sugar and butter, beaten together until light.
When cold, add the beaten egg yolks, crushed macaroons, and cream.
Bake and serve
Turn the mixture into the dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 45 minutes.
Serve cold.
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 + ricetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,456 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Almonds
- Provide the main flavour and body of the pudding through their ground texture and oils.
- Macaroons
- Add sweetness, almond aroma and a tender, crumbly texture to the set custard.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken and enrich the custard, helping it set firm when baked.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, carrying the flavours and setting with the eggs.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the pudding.
- Rice flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the custard holds its body while cooking.
The step that matters
Cooking the thickened milk before adding the eggs. Rice flour must be stirred into boiling milk and cooked so its starch swells and thickens. Adding the egg yolks to a mixture that is still hot could scramble them, so the custard is allowed to cool first.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream, rice):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream, rice. 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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