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Dessert

The Famous Bakewell Pudding

A puff pastry base layered with jam and a sweet almond, potato, and butter filling, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and almond work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 337 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

The Famous Bakewell 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Lay the puff pastry on a plate.

  3. Spread a 1‑inch layer of jam or preserve over the pastry.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, cream the butter until smooth.

  2. Add the pressed potatoes and sugar, mixing well.

  3. Incorporate the pounded sweet and bitter almonds.

  4. Fold in the beaten eggs and brandy until combined.

  5. Pour the mixture over the layer of preserves.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until set and golden.

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. Potato + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together337 recipes

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

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the filling into a custard-like structure as they cook and add richness.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, smooth texture to the creamed base.
Potatoes
Add body and moisture, giving the filling a soft, dense texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown in the oven.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and fat, contributing to the filling's richness.
Jam or preserve
Provides a sweet, fruity layer that sits beneath the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set and golden. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling runny while overbaking can make it dry and rubbery. Watch for a firm centre and golden top.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, almond, egg, brandy. 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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