Skip to main content
Dessert

Iced Almond Pudding

A chilled dessert made from almond paste, sugar, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Iced Almond Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Blanch the almonds and pound them into a paste.

  2. Beat the sugar and milk together.

  3. Whisk the eggs until very light.

  4. Combine the almonds, milk, and sugar in a pan and heat until just boiling.

Make the custard

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.

  2. Strain the mixture back into the pan and stir until it thickens, without boiling.

  3. Once thickened, set aside to cool.

Freeze and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a freezing can and freeze until sufficiently firm but not hard.

  2. Transfer to a neatly shaped mold and keep on ice until ready to serve.

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 + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Almonds
Provide the bulk and nutty flavour of the pudding, becoming a fine paste when pounded.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook gently, giving the pudding its body and richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and softens the texture of the frozen custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, carrying the almond flavour and keeping it moist.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard without boiling. Egg proteins thicken gently at moderate heat but curdle and turn grainy if boiled. Stirring over low heat until it coats a spoon keeps the custard smooth before freezing.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Cocoafits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk. 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.

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes