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Dessert

Almond Pudding

A baked pudding made with bread, cream, almonds, egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, butter, and orange‑flower water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. 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.

Prepare

  1. Soak the bread in the cream.

  2. Blend the almonds with the orange-flower water until smooth.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and whites separately.

Make the pudding

  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

  2. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring until thick.

Bake

  1. Line a dish with puff pastry and pour in the mixture.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks and whites set the custard and give it body as the mixture thickens and bakes.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, and softens the bread into the custard.
White bread
Soaked in cream, it adds body and helps the pudding hold together.
Blanched almonds
Ground into a smooth paste, they add nutty flavour and body to the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the custard brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring until thick. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures and can curdle or scramble if heated too fast. Low heat with constant stirring thickens the custard smoothly.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cream, almond, egg, sugar, 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.

More almond pudding recipes

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