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 ↓
Cherry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grate the stale rye bread.
Wet the grated bread with red wine.
Pound the almonds and set them aside.
Stone the cherries.
Butter a pudding mold well.
Make the batter
Stir the egg yolks with powdered sugar and cinnamon.
Add the grated bread and almonds to the egg mixture and mix well.
Add the cherries to the mixture.
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture last.
Pour the mixture into the pudding mold.
Chill and serve
Chill the pudding.
Serve cold.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Rye + cinnamontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together85 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
-
Rye + almondtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together18 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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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
- Stale rye bread
- Provides the bulk of the pudding, soaking up the wine and custard to set into a soft crumb.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the mixture and help it set firm when chilled, giving a custard-like texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped until stiff, they lighten the mixture and give it an airy, tender structure.
- Almonds
- Add body and nutty richness, and their fat keeps the pudding moist.
- Sweet cherries
- Add juicy moisture and fruity sweetness that contrasts with the rich base.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the egg yolks and dissolves easily into the batter for even sweetness.
The step that matters
Fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture last. Folding gently preserves the air whipped into the egg whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the pudding dense rather than light and tender.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rye, bread, red wine, egg, sugar, cinnamon, butter):
- Almondthe original
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Beansfits less well
- Walnutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against rye, bread, red wine, egg, sugar, cinnamon, 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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