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Macaroni Pudding, with Almonds

A baked macaroni pudding flavored with sweet and bitter almonds, milk, cream, sugar, butter, eggs, and topped with cinnamon or nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Macaroni Pudding, with Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds, then cut them small.

  2. Soak the almonds and macaroni in the milk for 1 to 2 hours.

Make the custard

  1. Simmer the mixture over low heat, adding the cream and sugar until sweetened.

  2. Once cooled, stir in the butter and beaten eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour, sprinkling cinnamon or nutmeg on top.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the pudding and set it into a tender custard when baked.
Macaroni
Provides the body of the pudding, soaking up the milk to form a soft structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps tenderise the custard texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, softer crumb.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that softens the pasta and sets with the eggs.

The step that matters

Simmer the mixture over low heat. Gentle heat keeps the milk and cream from scorching or curdling while the macaroni softens and the sugar dissolves. Too much heat can make the base catch on the pan bottom.

“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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