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Dessert

Wine Pudding

A baked pudding made with eggs, white wine, lemon, sugar, and topped with macaroons, powdered sugar, vanilla, and blanched almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Wine 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.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the granulated sugar.

  2. Dissolve the cornstarch in the water.

  3. Add the white wine, lemon juice, and grated lemon peel to the mixture.

  4. Bring to a boil until thick.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place macaroons in a pudding dish and pour the thick mixture over them.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff, adding powdered sugar and vanilla, then spread over the pudding.

  3. Top with blanched almonds and brown in the oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Yolks thicken and enrich the custard, while whites whip into a stable, airy topping.
Cornstarch
Swells in hot liquid to thicken the custard into a set, sliceable base.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic flavor that cuts through the sweetness.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the beaten egg yolks.

The step that matters

Bring the custard to a boil until thick. Cornstarch only reaches full thickening once the mixture boils. Stopping early leaves the custard thin and runny, so it will not hold its shape under the meringue.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, white wine, sugar, lemon, vanilla):

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Pistachiofits less well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, white wine, sugar, lemon, vanilla. 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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