Name: Victoria Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint boiling milk; 1 French roll (crumbed); a few sweet and bitter almonds (pounded); 2 tablespoons sifted sugar; 1 tablespoon brandy; 3 egg yolks (beaten); butter (for greasing); sweetmeats, citron, or raisins (for decoration)

Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Victoria Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Pour boiling milk over the crumb of the French roll and cover until nearly cold.
Add pounded almonds, sifted sugar, brandy, and beaten egg yolks; mix well.
Butter a basin or mold and arrange sweetmeats, citron, or raisins in a pattern.

Cook and serve

Pour the pudding mixture into the mold and boil well.
Serve with wine sauce.

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.

Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,781 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Brandy + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,768 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

French roll: Its crumb soaks up the hot milk and forms the body of the pudding.
Egg yolks: Beaten yolks set when heated, binding the pudding and adding richness.
Milk: Softens the crumb and gives the pudding its moist, custard-like texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the almonds and brandy.

“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.