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Dessert

Boiled Almond Pudding

A dessert made by boiling a paste of blanched almonds with rosewater, wine, cream, milk, egg, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour 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 ↓

Boiled Almond Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Blanch the almonds and beat them in a mortar to a smooth paste with the rosewater.

  2. In a bowl, combine the almond paste with wine, cream, milk, egg, and flour.

  3. Mix well and boil for half an 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 + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

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

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Almonds
Form the main body and nutty flavour of the pudding once beaten into a paste.
Cream
Adds richness and a soft, smooth texture through its fat content.
Egg
Sets with heat to bind the mixture and give it a firmer body.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as it heats, helping the pudding hold its shape.

The step that matters

Mix well before boiling. Egg and flour can lump or stick and scorch on the base of the pan if they are not fully dispersed before heating. Thorough mixing gives an even, smooth set during the half-hour boil.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits less well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

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