Name: To Matte an Almond Pudding
Ingredients: ¼ pound sweet almonds; 1 tablespoon water; 7 eggs (5 whites removed); ¼ pound sifted sugar; candied orange peel, diced; candied lemon peel, diced; butter for greasing the mold

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

To Matte an Almond Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Pound the almonds in a mortar with the water until smooth.
In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sugar until combined.
Fold in the pounded almonds and diced candied peels.
Grease a plain mold with butter.

Bake

Pour the mixture into the mold and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 flavor of the pudding.
Eggs: Set during baking to give the pudding its structure.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the batter hold together.
Candied orange peel: Adds bright, sweet citrus aroma and chewy pieces throughout.
Candied lemon peel: Adds tangy citrus aroma and chewy pieces throughout.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat. Pulling the pudding too early leaves it runny in the center, while overbaking makes it dry and rubbery.

Swap the orange

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits about as well
Orangethe original
Raisinfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, egg, sugar, lemon, 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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To Matte an Almond Pudding