Name: Custard for Bakewell Pudding
Ingredients: 4 ounces butter; ½ pound fine white sugar; 8 egg yolks; 2 egg whites; 10 drops almond flavoring

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 ↓

Custard for Bakewell Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

Dissolve the butter with the sugar in a bowl.
Beat the egg yolks and 2 egg whites together.
Pour the egg mixture into the butter and sugar, then add the almond flavoring.
Stir everything together until well combined.

Serve

Serve hot or cold.
If serving hot, top with a meringue made from the egg whites and bake for 3 minutes before serving.

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).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 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).
Sugar + eggtop 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

Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the custard a smooth, soft texture.
Fine white sugar: Dissolves with the butter to add sweetness and help create a smooth base.
Egg yolks: Add richness and thicken the custard as they set when heated.
Egg whites: Add structure and lightness, and form the meringue topping when whipped.
Almond flavoring: Adds a distinct almond aroma and flavor to the custard.