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Hogs' Puddings, with Almonds

A savory pudding made from beef marrow, almonds, spices, wine, and cream, cooked in hog intestines.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Hogs' Puddings, with Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the beef marrow and almonds finely.

  2. Beat them with orange flower or rose water.

  3. Mix in grated bread, currants, sugar, spices, wine, cream, and egg yolks.

Fill and cook

  1. Fill cleaned guts half full and tie them up.

  2. Boil for 15 minutes.

  3. Remove and place on a clean cloth.

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 + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  4. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Currant + macetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,791 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef marrow
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a moist, tender texture.
Sweet almonds
Add body and a delicate nutty flavour to the filling.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and adds bulk, giving the filling structure.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set firm when cooked.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy bursts of fruit throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Filling the guts half full. Sausage casings expand as the filling heats and the contents swell slightly. Overfilling can cause the casings to burst during boiling, so leaving room keeps the pudding intact.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, almond, orange, bread, sugar, mace, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, almond, orange, bread, sugar, mace, nutmeg. 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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