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Dessert

Almond Custard

A custard made with almonds, orange‑flower water, cream, egg yolks, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Blanch and pound the almonds with the orange-flower water.

  2. Add the cream and egg yolks, then sweeten with pounded loaf sugar.

  3. Stir over low heat until it thickens, but do not let it boil.

Serve

  1. Serve in a glass dish or cups, and sprinkle sifted loaf sugar on top.

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

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

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

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

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the nutty flavour and body of the custard once pounded into the liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the custard a smooth, soft texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving it a creamy structure.
Pounded loaf sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds a delicate sweetness to the finished dish.
Orange-flower water
Adds a floral aroma that flavours the almonds and cream.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until it thickens. Egg yolks set at modest temperatures, so high heat or boiling can curdle the custard into grainy lumps. Gentle, constant stirring keeps it smooth and thick.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, cream, egg, sugar. 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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