Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Almond Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, combine potato flour with the remainder of the mixture and stir.
Simmer gently for 3 minutes.
Add sugar and egg yolks, stirring by the side of the fire until thickened.
Dissolve gelatine in a little hot water and add it to the custard, then strain.
Stir in the almonds and add almond essence to taste.
Use the mixture to fill eclairs, cornets, or similar pastries.
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.
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together337 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, almond):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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