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Dessert

Macaroon Pudding

A custard pudding made with soaked macaroons, sherry wine, eggs, milk, cream, sugar, almonds, and almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Macaroon Pudding

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. Soak a dozen macaroons in sherry wine for 10 minutes.

  2. Remove the soaked macaroons from the wine.

  3. Beat the eggs lightly in a bowl.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add sugar, salt, milk, cream, chopped almonds, almond extract, and 4 finely powdered macaroons to the eggs.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pudding dish.

  3. Arrange the soaked macaroons on top of the mixture.

  4. Cover the dish.

  5. Bake for about 30 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sherry + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

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

  3. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Milk + almondtop 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

Macaroons (in the method)
Soaked in sherry, they soften and flavour the custard, while the powdered ones thicken it.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, keeping it moist and tender.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the custard a smoother, softer texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds flavour.

The step that matters

Covering and baking the dish. Eggs set into a custard when heated gently. Baking covered in a moderate oven helps the custard cook evenly and stay smooth rather than curdling or turning rubbery.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, wine, egg, sugar, milk, cream):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Cocoafits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Peasfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, wine, egg, sugar, milk, cream. 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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