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Dessert

Ratafia Puddings

A sweet almond pudding flavored with brandy, baked and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ratafia Puddings

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.

Make the mixture

  1. Blanch and pound the sweet and bitter almonds to a smooth paste, adding a few drops of water to prevent oiling.

  2. Mix the almond paste with sugar, melted butter, hot milk or cream, brandy, and beaten eggs.

  3. Butter small cups and half fill them with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

  2. Carefully turn the puddings out, sift powdered sugar over them, and serve with wine sauce.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Form the smooth, nutty paste that gives the pudding its body and flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set as it bakes, giving the pudding structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist crumb.
Hot milk or cream
Adds moisture and loosens the mixture into a pourable batter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown lightly in the oven.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm flavor note to the almond base.

The step that matters

Keep the almond paste smooth. Grinding almonds releases their oil, which can separate and leave the paste greasy. A few drops of water help it stay smooth and evenly combined with the eggs and milk, so the pudding bakes with an even texture.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Cocoafits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, brandy, 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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