Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Almond Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Use sherry to pound the almonds and mix with melted butter.
Stir in the remaining ingredients until well combined.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a lined pie dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cream + buttertop 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).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its structure.
- Almonds
- Add nutty flavour and body to the pudding base.
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, silkier texture.
- Milk
- Adds liquid that moistens the custard and lets the eggs set gently.
- Cake or bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and help give the pudding a tender body.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat, and overbaking makes the custard curdle and turn grainy. Stop once the centre is just firm, since it keeps setting as it cools.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, sugar, cream, milk, egg, butter, bread):
- Almondthe original
- Cocoafits about as well
- Pecansfits less well
- Chestnutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, sugar, cream, milk, egg, butter, bread. 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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