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Berlin Pudding

A steamed almond and egg pudding made with flour, butter, sugar, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Berlin Pudding

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 ↓

Berlin Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch and peel the almonds.

  2. Finely shred the almonds.

  3. Dry the shredded almonds in a cool oven.

Make the batter

  1. Sift the flour.

  2. Add half the milk to the flour.

  3. Stir vigorously until smooth.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine the remaining milk and butter.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the sugar, batter, and salt.

  4. Stir over heat until thickened.

  5. Let the mixture cool slightly.

  6. Beat in each egg yolk separately.

  7. Stir in the almonds.

  8. Fold in the stiffly whipped egg whites.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into 1 large or 8 small well-buttered molds.

  2. Steam the large pudding for 1.5 to 2 hours.

  3. Steam the small puddings for about 40 minutes.

  4. Serve with custard sauce or another sweet 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 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

Flour
Starch that thickens the mixture and gives the pudding its body and structure.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard, and whipped whites lift the pudding and help it set.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, smooth texture to the pudding.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and a slightly firm, textured crumb.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the flour starch swells in, giving a moist, creamy base.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the texture of the pudding.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly whipped egg whites. Whites hold air that makes the pudding light. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air in, so the pudding does not turn dense.

“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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