Why it works: Almond and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 485 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. 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 the almonds
Blanch and pound the sweet and bitter almonds.
Mix the almonds with corn starch, egg yolks, sugar, salt, and a little cold milk.
Make the pudding
Heat the milk in a saucepan until boiling.
Pour the almond mixture into the boiling milk. Stir well.
Transfer the mixture to a pudding dish.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Mix in 3 tablespoons of sugar.
Drop the beaten egg whites in hillocks on top of the pudding mixture.
Brown the pudding in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
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 + corntop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together485 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Almond + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Almonds
- Provide the main nutty almond flavour and body of the pudding.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the pudding its set texture.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it thicken into a smooth, creamy texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the almond and starch mixture thickens into pudding.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a stiff foam that forms the light topping and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Pour the almond mixture into the boiling milk. Corn starch needs to reach a boil to thicken fully; adding the mixture to hot milk and stirring well prevents lumps and an unevenly set pudding.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, egg, sugar, milk):
- Almondthe original
- Peanutfits about as well
- Beansfits about as well
- Lima beansfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg, sugar, milk. 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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