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Dessert

The Bake Well Pudding

A pudding made with puff pastry base, jam, eggs, sugar, butter, and almond flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The Bake Well Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cover a dish with thin puff pastry.

  3. Spread a layer of jam about ½ inch thick over the pastry.

Make and bake

  1. In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, melted butter, and almond flavoring until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into the dish, ensuring it is about 1 inch thick.

  3. Bake for 1 hour.

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

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Forms a flaky base that holds the jam and custard layers together.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the custard set into a tender texture.
Egg whites
Add structure and lift, helping the custard set firm while baking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the custard a smooth, tender crumb.
Jam
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture between the pastry and custard.

The step that matters

Layering the jam and pouring the custard to about 1 inch. Spreading the jam evenly keeps the pastry from turning soggy in spots, and a consistent custard depth lets the eggs set evenly rather than leaving a runny center or overcooked edges.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

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