Name: The Bakewell Pudding
Ingredients: thin puff paste; ½ cup jam; 8 egg yolks; 10 egg whites; ½ pound sugar; ½ pound melted butter; almond flavoring to taste

Why it works: Butter and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The Bakewell 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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cover a dish with thin puff paste.
Spread a layer of jam about ½ inch thick over the paste.

Make the filling

In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, melted butter, and almond flavoring until well combined.
Pour the mixture into the dish, ensuring it is about 1 inch thick.

Bake

Bake for 1 hour.

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.

Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Thin puff paste: Forms the crisp, flaky base that holds the filling in the dish.
Jam: Adds sweetness and fruity flavor in a layer beneath the filling.
Egg yolks: Add richness and help the filling set into a tender custard.
Egg whites: Add structure to the filling so it sets firm when baked.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps it brown during baking.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the filling.

The step that matters

Spreading the jam and pouring the filling to depth. A layer of jam about ½ inch thick and a filling about 1 inch thick must be kept even so the tart bakes evenly. Too thick a layer of either can leave the center underbaked while the edges over-brown.