Name: Almond Pudding
Ingredients: 1 quart milk; 1 heaping tablespoon sifted flour; 1 pound sweet almonds, blanched and pounded; ¼ teaspoon salt; ⅓ cup sugar; 2 eggs, yolks and whites separated; butter for topping

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond 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.

Make the custard

In a double boiler, heat the milk.
Mix the flour with a little milk to form a cream, then stir it into the milk.
Once cooked, remove from heat and let cool.

Bake

Stir in the pounded almonds, salt, sugar, and flavoring.
Add the beaten egg yolks and whites separately.
Dot the top with bits of butter.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.

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.

Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Milk: Forms the liquid base of the pudding, giving it body and moisture.
Flour: Thickens the milk into a cream, giving the pudding structure and a soft set.
Sweet almonds: Provide the main flavour and richness, and add body to the pudding.
Eggs: Set the pudding as they cook, giving structure and a custard-like texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly on top.

“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.