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Dessert

Swedish Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, flour, eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, topped with apricots and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Swedish Pudding

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the custard

  1. Scald 1 cup of milk.

  2. In a bowl, rub 2 tablespoons of flour into a smooth paste with ⅓ cup of almond milk.

  3. Add 2 egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar to the flour mixture.

  4. Pour the scalded milk into the mixture and cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and let it cool.

  6. Once cool, add ⅓ teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a dish and cover with apricots.

  2. Beat 2 egg whites to stiff peaks, gradually adding 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

  3. Squeeze the egg white mixture through a paper cone with a small hole.

  4. Place in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

  5. Serve cold with the syrup from the apricots.

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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  5. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with the milk.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks to form a light, airy topping that holds its shape.
Flour
Thickens the custard base so it sets smoothly rather than runny.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and mouthfeel in the custard.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the egg whites and helps stabilize the meringue-style topping.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites need to be fully whipped with sugar added gradually so they hold stiff peaks; under-whipped or greasy whites collapse in the oven and lose their light texture.

“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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