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Dessert

Almond Custard Pudding

A custard pudding made with sponge cake, blanched almonds, wine, milk, eggs, sugar, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Custard Pudding

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.

Prepare

  1. Cut the sponge cake into pieces and place the pieces in a baking dish.

  2. Sprinkle the blanched almonds over the cake.

  3. Pour the wine over the cake and almonds.

Make and bake the custard

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, and flavoring.

  2. Pour the custard mixture over the cake and almonds.

  3. 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.

  1. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Wine + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Sponge cake
Forms the base layer that soaks up the custard as it bakes.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and keeps the pudding moist.
Blanched almonds
Add nutty flavor and a slightly crunchy texture among the soft cake.
Wine
Adds acidity and flavor and moistens the cake before the custard goes on.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs thicken as their proteins coagulate with heat. Pulling the pudding too early leaves it runny, while overbaking makes it grainy and watery, so it should be checked for a set centre.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Cocoafits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, milk, 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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