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Berlin Pudding

A steamed almond and egg pudding made with flour, butter, sugar, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Berlin Pudding

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Berlin Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch, peel, and finely shred the almonds.

  2. Dry the shredded almonds in a cool oven.

  3. Sift the flour.

Make the pudding base

  1. Add half the milk and stir vigorously until smooth.

  2. Combine the remaining milk and butter in a saucepan.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Add the sugar, batter, and salt.

  5. Stir over heat until thickened.

  6. Let the mixture cool slightly.

  7. Beat in each egg yolk separately.

  8. Stir in the almonds.

Finish and steam

  1. Fold in the whipped egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into one large or eight small well-buttered molds.

  3. Steam the large pudding for 1.5 to 2 hours.

  4. Steam the small puddings for about 40 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with custard sauce or another sweet 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken and enrich the batter, while whipped whites lighten it and help it set when steamed.
Flour
Starch thickens the milk mixture and gives the pudding its body and structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Almonds
Add nutty flavor and a fine, slightly textured crumb.
Milk
Provides the liquid that cooks with the flour into a smooth thickened base and keeps the pudding moist.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the rich, savory-leaning base.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air whipped into the egg whites. That trapped air lightens the pudding and helps it rise and stay tender when steamed. Stirring vigorously would deflate the mixture.

“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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