Why it works: Butter and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,198 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare
Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs.
Pound the sugar until fine.
Melt the butter.
Blanch the almonds, then pound them with a little rose water.
Mince the marmalade.
Assemble and bake
Mix all ingredients well.
Line a dish with puff pastry and pour in the mixture.
Bake until set, then turn it out and serve on a napkin.
This pudding can be eaten cold.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + almondtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,198 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + buttertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together118,511 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Sugar + almondtop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together15,678 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + buttertop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,096 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together122,252 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
- Eggs
- Set the custard-like mixture as they cook and bind it together.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender texture to the pudding.
- Almonds
- Provide body, nutty flavour and a moist, tender crumb.
- Marmalade
- Adds sweetness, citrus acidity and aroma.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown lightly as it bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding runny while overbaking makes it dry and rubbery. Check for a firm centre before turning it out.
Flavor stand-ins for the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter):
- Pecansabout as good a flavor fit
- Almondthe original
- Filbertabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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