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Almond Sauce for Puddings Hot or Cold

A smooth almond sauce for puddings, made with soaked almonds, sugar, egg yolks, cream, and maraschino syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Almond Sauce for Puddings Hot or Cold

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Soak almonds in cold water, then boil and strain them.

  2. Rinse in cold water and rub in a cloth to remove skins.

  3. Pound almonds into a smooth paste with castor sugar.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix in egg yolks gradually, then add single cream while stirring in a saucepan over low heat until thickened.

  2. Stir in maraschino syrup and strain through a sieve.

  3. Heat in a bain marie or serve cold.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Valencia almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the sauce once pounded into a paste.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the sauce and helps break the almonds down into a smooth paste.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently over low heat while stirring.
Single cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the sauce a smooth, pourable texture.
Maraschino syrup
Adds sweetness and a distinct cherry-like aroma to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the custard over low heat. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures and can scramble if overheated. Cooking gently over low heat while stirring keeps the sauce smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Hazelnutfits about as well

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