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Dessert

Semolina Pudding, Baked

A baked pudding made from semolina, milk, sugar, butter, eggs, and bitter almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Semolina and almond share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 93 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Semolina Pudding, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard base

  1. Infuse the bitter almonds in the milk by heating it gently for about 30 minutes, then strain.

  2. Mix the strained milk with semolina, sugar, and butter in a saucepan and stir over low heat for a few minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and gradually mix in the well-beaten eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a pie dish and line the edges with puff pastry.

  2. Pour the pudding mixture into the dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 40 to 50 minutes.

  3. Serve with custard sauce or stewed fruit.

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. Semolina + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Semolina + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together351 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Semolina
Thickens the milk into a set, tender pudding body as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firmly during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft, smooth texture to the pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the semolina cooks into and carries the almond flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and contributes to browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Gradually mix in the eggs off the heat. Adding beaten eggs to a hot mixture all at once can scramble them. Removing the pan from heat and adding the eggs slowly tempers them so they blend smoothly and set evenly in the oven.

“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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