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Consomme a LA Talma

A custard of almonds and rice served in clarified consommé.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Consomme a LA Talma

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Blanch and peel the almonds.

  2. Pound the almonds in a mortar until fine.

  3. Add the milk to the almonds and mix thoroughly.

  4. Strain the mixture through a tammy cloth or strong napkin.

  5. Break the whole eggs in a bowl and add the yolks.

  6. Whisk well.

  7. Strain the egg mixture into the almond milk.

  8. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt and mix well.

Cook and cut the custard

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered charlotte or timbale mold.

  2. Place the mold in a stewpan with boiling water.

  3. Cover the water to half the height of the mold.

  4. Cover the mold with buttered paper.

  5. Simmer until the custard is firm enough to turn out.

  6. Let the custard cool in the mold.

  7. Turn the custard onto a wet cloth.

  8. Cut the custard into half-inch squares or dice.

Prepare the rice and serve

  1. Blanch the rice.

  2. Par-boil the rice in slightly salted water.

  3. Drain the rice.

  4. Cool the rice.

  5. Finish cooking the rice in clear stock.

  6. In a soup tureen, combine a handful of boiled rice and the custard.

  7. Pour boiling consommé over the mixture.

  8. Serve.

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 + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Egg yolks
Add richness and smoothness, helping the custard set softly.
Almonds
Provide the main flavor and body of the custard once ground and strained.
Milk
Adds moisture and dilutes the almond paste into a smooth, pourable base.
Rice
Adds bulk and a soft, chewy texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer until the custard is firm enough to turn out. Egg proteins set with gentle heat; boiling or overheating the water bath can make the custard spongy, cracked or watery, so it will not hold its shape when cut.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, rice, pepper):

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Peanutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, rice, pepper. 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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