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Dessert

Bakewell Pudding

A baked custard with strawberry preserves, almonds, candied lemon peel, and a buttery egg mixture, served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Strawberry and almond work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Bakewell Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Line a pie plate with the crust.

  2. Spread a layer of strawberry preserves on the crust.

  3. Sprinkle the chopped almonds and candied lemon peel over the preserves.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the sugar, melted butter, egg yolks, egg whites, and almond extract until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture over the layered ingredients in the pie plate.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until the middle is firm.

  2. Let it cool, then sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

  3. Serve cold, with or without cream.

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. Strawberry + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together433 recipes

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

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Strawberry + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Strawberry + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,206 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Add richness and help the filling set firm when baked.
Egg whites
Help the filling set and give it a light, tender structure.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist texture.
Strawberry preserves
Provide sweetness, fruit flavour and moisture under the filling.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until the middle is firm. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves a runny centre while overbaking in a hot oven can make the filling curdle, tough and weepy. A slow oven and a firm middle test keep it smooth.

Swap the strawberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Strawberrythe original

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