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Dessert

Almond Pudding

A creamy pudding made from rice, milk, almonds, and eggs, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the rice

  1. Combine the rice and milk or cream in a milk or rice boiler.

  2. Boil gently until the rice is swollen and soft.

  3. Transfer the cooked rice to a dish.

  4. Let it cool slightly.

Make the almond and flavouring base

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds.

  2. Pound them into a smooth paste.

  3. Grate the lemon rind or vanilla bean into a small amount of new milk.

  4. Boil until soft.

Combine and bake

  1. Mix in the butter and sugar to taste.

  2. Add the almond paste and beat well.

  3. Mix in the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Butter the baking dish.

  5. Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy.

  6. Gradually add the sifted sugar.

  7. Spread the egg white mixture over the pudding.

  8. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.

  9. Serve immediately.

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. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Swells and softens during gentle boiling to form the creamy body of the pudding.
Milk or cream
Cooks the rice and provides moisture and richness for a smooth, soft texture.
Almonds
Adds nutty flavour and body through the smooth paste mixed into the rice.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the pudding base, adding richness and structure when cooked.
Egg whites
Beaten to foam and baked on top, they set and lightly brown into a light crust.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until light and fluffy. Whites must be beaten to stiff, airy foam without deflating, since the foam supplies the lift and light texture of the topping in the oven. Gradual sugar helps stabilise it.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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