Name: Vermicelli Pudding
Ingredients: 4 oz. vermicelli; 1½ pints milk; ½ pint cream; 3 oz. butter; 3 oz. sugar; 4 eggs; grated lemon rind (optional); essence of bitter almonds (optional); vanilla (optional)

Why it works: Almond and vanilla 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 ↓

Vermicelli 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.

Make the filling

Boil the vermicelli in the milk until tender.
Stir in the butter, sugar, and eggs, and add flavoring if desired.

Bake

Butter a pie dish and line the edges with puff pastry.
Pour the mixture into the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

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.

Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,961 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla 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

Vermicelli: Cooked in milk until tender, it forms the body of the pudding.
Milk: Cooks the vermicelli and provides moisture for the custard-like filling.
Eggs: Set during baking to bind the pudding into a sliceable custard.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a softer, smoother texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly in the oven.
Cream: Adds richness and moisture, making the filling smoother and more tender.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, butter, sugar, egg, almond, vanilla):

Coconutfits better
Figfits better
Peachfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, butter, sugar, egg, almond, vanilla. 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.