Name: College Pudding, Baked
Ingredients: 4 ounces sweet almonds; 6 bitter almonds; 6 tablespoons sifted sugar; ¼ pound sweet butter; 6 egg yolks; 3 egg whites; ⅓ cup brandy; 1 inch thick layer of apricot jam or any other jam

Why it works: Almond and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

College Pudding, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Blanch and pound the sweet and bitter almonds.
Mix the almonds with the sugar and butter until well combined.
Add the egg yolks, egg whites, and brandy, then beat well.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a pie dish over the jam layer.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1.5 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.

Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together852 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Brandy + apricottop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together513 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + apricottop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,458 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).