Name: Ratifia Pudding
Ingredients: 1½ pints new milk; bitter almonds (or 3-4 bay leaves and a little cinnamon); a few grains of coarse sea salt; 4-6 ounces sugar (to taste); 6 eggs, well beaten; 1 glass brandy; ½ recipe of pie crust (for the base); 1 ounce ratifias, finely crumbled

Why it works: Milk and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,738 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Ratifia Pudding

Ingredients

1½ pints new milk
bitter almonds (or 3-4 bay leaves and a little cinnamon)
a few grains of coarse sea salt
4-6 ounces sugar (to taste)
6 eggs, well beaten
1 glass brandy
½ recipe of pie crust (for the base)
1 ounce ratifias, finely crumbled

Directions

Flavor the milk with bitter almonds or bay leaves and cinnamon, adding a few grains of salt and sugar.
Simmer gently for a few minutes, then strain the milk through a fine sieve.
Return the strained milk to a clean saucepan and bring to a boil.
Gradually stir the hot milk into the beaten eggs, then let the mixture cool.
Add the brandy to the cooled mixture.
Lay the pie crust in a well-buttered dish and sprinkle the crumbled ratifias into it.

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.

Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,738 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,969 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,340 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

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