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Dessert

Almond Rice Cup Puddings

A pudding made from almond paste, cream, ground rice, lemon zest, egg yolks or whites, and citron chips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Rice Cup Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the almond paste with the cream.

  2. Stir in the ground rice and a little lemon zest.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then add the egg yolks or whites based on desired stiffness.

Fill and serve

  1. If turning out, place citron chips in the bottom of the cup.

  2. If serving in cups, lay citron chips on top.

  3. Dip the cups in water before adding the pudding.

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 + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

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

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Almond paste
Gives the pudding its almond flavour and a thick, smooth body.
Cream
Provides richness and a creamy, moist texture.
Ground rice
Thickens the cream so the pudding holds its shape when cooled.
Egg yolks or whites
Help the pudding set, with more eggs giving a firmer result.
Lemon zest
Adds a bright citrus aroma that balances the richness.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. Eggs thicken and can scramble or curdle when added to very hot liquid. Cooling the mixture first lets the eggs blend in smoothly and set evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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