Name: Almond Pudding
Ingredients: 3-layer rich gold cake; sliced peaches; macaroons; almonds; frosting; brandy sauce

Why it works: Peach and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 466 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Bake a rich gold cake in three layers.
Place sliced peaches between the first and second layers.
Frost the second layer and top it with macaroons and almonds.
Frost the third layer.
Serve cold with brandy sauce.

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.

Peach + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Peach + brandytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together339 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,969 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Almond + saucetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together307 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Peach + saucetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together109 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).