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Dessert

Almond Puddings

A baked almond custard made with sweet and bitter almonds, butter, eggs, flour, sugar, spices, cream, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Almond Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Pound the sweet and bitter almonds in a mortar with the rose water or cold water.

  2. Rub in the softened butter until well combined.

  3. Add the egg yolks, flour, powdered sugar, and spices, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Stir in the cream and brandy until smooth.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into buttered tea cups or a lined baking dish.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with pudding or lemon sauce.

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. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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 body and nutty flavour of the pudding once pounded into a paste.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, moist crumb as it is worked into the almond paste.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter; they set during baking to give the pudding structure.
All-purpose flour
Gives the pudding body and helps it hold its shape as the batter sets.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps create a fine, even texture in the batter.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, producing a softer, custard-like interior.

The step that matters

Mixing the batter until smooth. Thoroughly combining the almond paste, butter, and flour before adding the cream keeps the batter even, so the pudding bakes with a uniform texture rather than lumps or pockets of flour.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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