Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓
Austrian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the raspberries
Place raspberries and ½ cup moist sugar in a jar in a saucepan of boiling water and cook them halfway.
Make the batter
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and castor sugar until thick and creamy.
Add cake crumbs, ground almonds, cream, and melted butter to the yolk mixture.
Gently fold in the stiffly whisked egg whites.
Bake and serve
Once raspberries are ready, place them with their juice in a buttered fireproof souffle dish.
Cover with the egg mixture and decorate with halved glace cherries.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 30 minutes.
Serve hot.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,130 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whisked whites lift the mixture, and yolks enrich and bind it as it sets.
- Cake crumbs
- Provide bulk and absorb moisture, giving the pudding a soft, cake-like body.
- Ground almonds
- Add richness and a moist, tender texture to the pudding.
- Raspberries
- Release juice that flavours and moistens the base, adding acidity and fruitiness.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks whip to a thick, creamy state.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air from whisking, which gives the pudding its rise. Folding gently preserves that air; stirring or beating deflates the foam and leaves a dense result.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cream, butter):
- Almondthe original
- Pecansfits about as well
- Filbertfits less well
- Pistachiofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cream, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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.
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