Name: Almond Puddings
Ingredients: 6 ounces almonds; 3 ounces butter; 4 ounces sugar; 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel; 2 tablespoons cream; 6 egg yolks; butter for greasing cups

Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

Almond Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

Beat the almonds in a mortar with the butter, sugar, and lemon peel.
Mix the paste with the cream and beat in the egg yolks.

Bake and serve

Butter small cups and pour in the mixture.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Turn out and serve with custard or whipped cream.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds: Form the bulk of the paste, giving the pudding its nutty body and fine texture.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender crumb.
Sugar: Sweetens the pudding and helps bind the paste with the butter.
Egg yolks: Add richness and help the mixture set as it bakes.
Cream: Adds moisture and softness to the paste before baking.