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Dessert

Almond Pudding

A sweet pudding made with eggs, sugar, bread crumbs, almonds, citron, and baking powder, boiled and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Almond Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat together the eggs and sugar until light.

  2. Add the moistened bread crumbs, chopped almonds, and citron; stir for 15 minutes.

  3. Fold in the baking powder.

Boil and bake

  1. Fill a pudding form and boil for 15 minutes in a kettle with boiling water.

  2. Place the covered kettle into a Caloric oven for two hours.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Bread + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together858 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness as they set, holding the pudding together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the eggs whip to a light, airy batter.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, giving the pudding a soft, tender crumb.
Chopped almonds
Contribute nutty flavor and a firm, pleasantly textured bite.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and stays light.

The step that matters

Fold in the baking powder. Baking powder starts releasing gas once it meets moisture and heat, so it should be folded in gently and the pudding put into cooking promptly. Overmixing knocks out the air bubbles the eggs trapped, leaving a dense result.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, bread):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, 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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