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Almond Pudding, Jewish

A sweet almond custard baked in a mold, served with lemon syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Almond Pudding, Jewish

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Soak the sweet and bitter almonds in cold water in a saucepan.

  2. Gradually heat the water until it is too hot to touch.

  3. Transfer the almonds to a basin.

  4. Remove the skins from the almonds.

  5. Place the almonds in cold water immediately.

  6. Dry the almonds thoroughly.

  7. Pound the almonds in a mortar until smooth.

  8. Add a teaspoon of cold water two or three times to prevent oiling.

Make and bake the pudding

  1. Mix in the powdered sugar, rose water, beaten egg yolks, and egg whites.

  2. Stir the mixture briskly for 10 minutes.

  3. Pour the mixture into a well-oiled mold.

  4. Bake at 400 °F (200 °C) for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Turn the pudding out of the mold before serving.

  2. Pour a thick syrup made with lemon rind, juice, and cochineal around it.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Rose + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,174 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Ground to a smooth paste, they form the body and rich flavor of the pudding.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the pudding set as it bakes.
Egg whites
Whipped air and protein give the pudding lift and a light structure.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly into the almond mixture.
Bitter almonds
Contribute a deeper, aromatic almond flavor in small amounts.

The step that matters

Adding cold water while pounding the almonds. Almonds release oil as they are crushed, and heat or friction can make the paste separate and oily. Adding small amounts of cold water keeps the paste emulsified and smooth, which affects the final texture of the pudding.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rose, egg, lemon, syrup. 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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