Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Almond Pudding, Baked
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dish
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Butter a pie dish and line the bottom with thin, buttered slices of roll.
Mix the ground almonds, lemon rind, and cinnamon; add half to the pie dish.
Cover with thin slices of roll, then add the remaining almond mixture, and cover again with slices of roll.
Make the custard
Boil the milk and stir in the sugar.
Beat the eggs well, then pour the hot milk over them, stirring constantly.
Add the milk mixture to the pie dish in tablespoonfuls to avoid floating the slices of roll.
Bake
Cover the pudding and let it stand for 30 minutes.
Bake gently for about 1 hour.
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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid custard that soaks the bread and sets during baking.
- Butter
- Adds richness and keeps the bread slices from sticking to the dish.
- Ground almonds
- Add nutty flavour and body to the layers between the bread.
- Penny rolls
- Soak up the custard and form the soft, layered structure of the pudding.
The step that matters
Adding the milk mixture to the pie dish. Pouring the custard in tablespoonfuls lets the roll slices soak it up gradually, so they stay in place instead of floating to the top and leaving the pudding unevenly set.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, egg, almond, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, egg, almond, cinnamon. 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.
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Cinnamon Rolls71 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.