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Dessert

Almond Puddings, Small

A steamed or baked pudding made from ground almonds, eggs, sugar, cream, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Almond Puddings, Small

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 batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Stir in the egg yolks, ground almonds, and cream.

  3. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold them into the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into buttered small cups or dariol moulds.

  2. Steam or bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with a suitable sauce.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground almonds
Provide the main body and rich, nutty flavour of the pudding.
Eggs
Whites trapped as foam lift the pudding, while yolks help bind it and set it.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to add richness and a tender crumb.
Castor sugar
Creaming with butter adds air and sweetness to the mixture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the pudding soft.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten to a stiff froth trap air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently with a spatula until just combined.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Filbertfits less well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

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