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Dessert

To Make a Cream Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with cream, eggs, almonds, mace, nutmeg, and flavored with orange flower or rose water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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To Make a Cream Pudding

Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

To Make a Cream Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Boil the cream with the mace and grated nutmeg.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Beat the eggs and egg whites.

  4. Strain them well.

  5. Mix a tablespoon of flour with the eggs.

  6. Add the blanched almonds and orange-flower or rose-water.

  7. Gradually mix in the cooled cream.

  8. Beat everything together.

Boil and serve

  1. Wet and flour a thick cloth.

  2. Pour the mixture into the cloth.

  3. Tie it securely.

  4. Boil for 30 minutes.

  5. Ensure the water is boiling fast during cooking.

  6. Pour the pudding into a dish.

  7. Drizzle with melted butter.

  8. Sprinkle with fine sugar.

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. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the pudding into a firm, sliceable body as they cook.
Cream
Provides richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Egg whites
Add extra protein for setting and a lighter texture.
Flour
Thickens the custard so it holds together when boiled.
Blanched almonds
Add body and a nutty flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Ensure the water is boiling fast during cooking. Wrapped in a cloth, the pudding needs vigorous boiling to cook through evenly. Weak simmering lets the custard cook slowly and become heavy or unevenly set.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, nutmeg, egg, flour, almond, orange, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, nutmeg, egg, flour, almond, orange, 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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