Name: Macaroon Pudding
Ingredients: ½ lb macaroons; 2 eggs; ¼ teaspoon salt; ⅓ cup cream; ⅓ cup sherry wine; 5 tablespoons sugar; 1 cup milk; 2 tablespoons almonds; 50 almonds, finely powdered

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the pudding

In a bowl, combine the macaroons, eggs, salt, cream, sherry wine, sugar, milk, and finely powdered almonds.
Transfer this mixture into a pudding dish.
Arrange soaked macaroons on top.

Bake

Cover and bake for 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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sherry + almondtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together517 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,479 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,130 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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: Provide the main body and flavour, softening into the custard as the pudding bakes.
Eggs: Set the custard so the pudding firms up as it bakes.
Cream: Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smoother, softer texture.
Milk: Adds liquid that moistens the macaroons and helps form the custard.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps browning on the pudding's surface.
Almonds: Add nutty aroma and body to the custard.

Swap the almond

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

Almondthe original
Cocoafits about as well
Chestnutfits about as well
Peasfits less well

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