Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Austrian Pudding
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 the raspberries
Place raspberries and ½ cup moist sugar in a jar in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for half the time.
Make the egg mixture
In a bowl, whisk egg yolks and caster sugar until thick and creamy.
Add cake crumbs, ground almonds, cream, and melted butter to the yolk mixture.
Gently fold in the stiffly whisked egg whites.
Assemble and bake
Once raspberries are ready, place them with their juice in a buttered fireproof souffle dish.
Cover with the egg mixture.
Decorate with halved glace cherries.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.
Serve hot.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,130 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whites trap air for lift, and yolks set the pudding into a tender custard.
- Cake crumbs
- Provide the body of the pudding and absorb moisture from the fruit and custard.
- Raspberries
- Supply tart flavour and juice that moistens the pudding as it bakes.
- Ground almonds
- Add a moist, tender texture and a rich nutty flavour.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
- Caster sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the yolks whisk to a thick, stable foam.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the egg whites. Whisked whites hold air that gives the pudding its lift. Folding gently keeps that foam from deflating, so the pudding bakes up light rather than dense.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cream, butter):
- Almondthe original
- Pecansfits about as well
- Filbertfits less well
- Pistachiofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cream, butter. 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.
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