Name: Pastry Cream Almond Pudding
Ingredients: ¼ pound blanched sweet almonds; 4 bitter almonds; ⅓ cup noyeau (or almond liqueur); ⅓ cup plain water; pastry cream (see recipe No. 203)

Why it works: Almond and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,130 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

Pastry Cream Almond Pudding

Ingredients

¼ pound blanched sweet almonds
4 bitter almonds
⅓ cup noyeau (or almond liqueur)
⅓ cup plain water
pastry cream (see recipe No. 203)

Directions

Make the almond base

Beat the blanched sweet almonds and bitter almonds to a paste in a mortar.
Add the noyeau and plain water, mixing well.

Bake and serve

Combine this mixture with the pastry cream.
Bake in a lined torte tin until done.
Serve on a dish spread with whipped cream, about ¼ inch thick.

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.

Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Blanched sweet almonds: Provide the main almond paste, giving body and a rich nutty flavor to the pudding.
Bitter almonds: Add a sharper, more intense almond aroma that balances the sweetness.
Noyeau: Adds a liqueur-based almond aroma and moistens the almond paste.
Pastry cream: Adds richness and a custard-like body that sets as the pudding bakes.

“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.