Name: Macaroon Pudding
Ingredients: 2 lb macaroons; ⅓ cup sherry wine; 2 eggs; 5 tablespoons sugar; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 cup milk; 1 cup cream; 2 tablespoons blanched and chopped almonds; 1 teaspoon almond extract

Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 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.

Prepare

Soak the macaroons in sherry wine for ten minutes.
In a bowl, mix the soaked macaroons, chopped almonds, almond extract, and four finely powdered macaroons.
Turn this mixture into a pudding dish.
Arrange the remaining soaked macaroons on top.

Bake

Cover and bake for about thirty minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Sugar + creamtop 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: Absorb the sherry and form the soft, cake-like body of the pudding.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness so the pudding stays tender.
Cream: Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, silkier texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps with browning on the surface.

Swap the almond

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

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

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