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Dessert

Potato and Almond Pudding

A baked pudding made from mashed potatoes, almonds, milk, butter, sugar, eggs, and lemon, topped with almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Potato and Almond 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 the almonds and potatoes

  1. Mash the boiled potatoes until perfectly smooth.

  2. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds, then pound them with a little orange‑flower water.

  3. Simmer the pounded almonds in the milk until the flavor is extracted.

Make the pudding mixture

  1. Dissolve the butter and powdered sugar in the almond‑infused milk.

  2. Stir the milk mixture into the mashed potatoes, adding salt, nutmeg, lemon rind, and juice.

  3. Beat the mixture until light and smooth, then fold in the yolks and whisked whites of the eggs.

Bake

  1. Line a pie dish with puff pastry and pour in the pudding mixture.

  2. Chop the almonds coarsely and sprinkle them over the pudding.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.

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 + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
Boiled potatoes
Provide body and a soft, smooth texture to the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth crumb.
Sweet almonds
Supply the main almond flavor and a nutty, fragrant aroma.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly as it bakes.
Milk
Carries the almond flavor and adds moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs into the mixture. Folding in the whisked egg whites traps air that lifts the pudding; over-beating or deflating the whites makes it dense. Yolks should be blended in gently so the custard sets evenly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, milk, butter, sugar, nutmeg, lemon, 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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