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Dessert

Almond Pudding

A baked almond pudding made with sweet almonds, tapioca, sponge cakes, milk, brandy, eggs, curd, butter, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Almond Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Pound the almonds with tapioca in a mortar, adding a little cream or milk to prevent oiling.

  2. Combine the sponge cakes and milk in a basin, then add the brandy.

  3. Whisk the eggs until frothy, then beat the sponge cakes smooth.

Mix and bake

  1. Mix all ingredients together lightly.

  2. Add the curd, butter, and sugar to taste.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a dish, garnish with sliced almonds, and bake in a warm oven.

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

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main flavour and body of the pudding, thickened by the tapioca.
Eggs
Set the custard-like pudding and add richness and structure as they cook.
Sponge cakes
Soak up the milk and brandy, giving the pudding a soft, tender crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, helping the mixture bake to a soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
Tapioca
Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving the pudding body.

The step that matters

Pound the almonds with tapioca, adding cream or milk. Almonds are rich in oil that can separate and turn greasy when ground. Adding a little cream or milk keeps the paste emulsified and smooth, so the finished pudding stays even in texture.

“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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