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Dessert

Flummery

A chilled almond pudding made with bitter and sweet almonds, calf's feet stock, sugar, cream, and rose water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Flummery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Soak bitter and sweet almonds in boiling water to remove skins.

  2. Strip off the skins and place the kernels in cold water.

  3. Beat the kernels in a mortar with a little rose water to prevent oiling.

Make the flummery

  1. Combine beaten almonds with calf's feet stock in a pot.

  2. Sweeten with loaf sugar and bring to a boil.

  3. Strain through muslin or gauze and let cool slightly.

  4. Mix in thick cream and stir until thick and cold.

  5. Wet molds with cold water and pour in the mixture.

  6. Let stand for about 6 hours before turning out.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Bitter almonds
Give the pudding its characteristic almond aroma and flavour.
Sweet almonds
Supply the main almond body and flavour of the pudding.
Calf's feet stock
Provides gelatine that lets the pudding set firm when cold.
Thick cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, creamier texture.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the almond flavour.

The step that matters

Beat the kernels with rose water. Almonds are rich in oil; beating them with a little rose water helps keep the oil from separating out, which would make the pudding greasy and grainy rather than smooth.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, rose. 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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