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Dessert

Almond Pudding

A steamed pudding made with breadcrumbs, suet, ground rice, almonds, candied peel, eggs, sugar, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Almond Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat your steamer or pot of water for boiling.

  2. Butter a basin and decorate the bottom with alternate rows of raisins and halved blanched almonds.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the breadcrumbs, suet, ground rice, chopped almonds, sugar, and candied peel.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, almond essence, and enough milk to create a thick batter.

  3. Pour the mixture into the prepared basin.

Steam

  1. Cover with a lid or foil and steam for 2 to 3 hours.

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.

  1. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  5. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender.
Breadcrumbs
Form the body of the pudding and absorb milk to hold the batter together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding its flavour.
Ground rice
Adds a soft, slightly fine texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Covering and steaming the basin. The basin must be sealed tightly so steam heats the pudding evenly without water getting in. Keep the water boiling and topped up so the pudding cooks through over the full 2 to 3 hours.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, almond, sugar, egg, milk, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, almond, sugar, egg, milk, 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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