Why it works: Almond and butter 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 ↓
Chester 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 the pastry
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a small pie dish with rough puff pastry made from 4 ounces of flour.
Decorate the edges of the pastry as desired and brush with egg.
Make the filling
In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar together.
Blanch the almonds by boiling them briefly in hot water, then remove the skins and crush them.
Stir the crushed almonds into the melted butter and sugar mixture.
Add the yolks of 3 eggs and the white of 1 egg, stirring over gentle heat until thickened.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pastry dish and bake for 30 minutes or until set.
Top and serve
Whip the remaining 2 egg whites and mix in 2 teaspoons of sugar, then pile on top of the pudding.
Decorate with the remaining dozen blanched and browned almonds.
Return to the oven for a few minutes to set the egg whites.
Serve hot or 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Eggs
- Yolks and white thicken the almond custard as they set with gentle heat.
- Butter
- Melted with sugar, it adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps give the custard a soft, glossy texture.
- Sweet almonds
- Crushed almonds add nutty flavour and body to the filling.
The step that matters
Stirring the custard over gentle heat until thickened. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, so high heat can scramble the eggs and leave the filling grainy. Gentle, constant stirring keeps it smooth.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg):
- Almondthe original
- Pecansfits about as well
- Filbertfits less well
- Walnutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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