Why it works: Wine and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,427 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Almond 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 almonds
Scald and peel the sweet and bitter almonds, placing them in cold water as you peel.
Pound each almond in a mortar, adding drops of rose water to prevent heaviness.
Mix the sweet and bitter almonds by pounding them alternately. Transfer the almonds to a plate.
Make the batter
Stir the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Gradually add the mixed wine and brandy to the butter and sugar mixture.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the mixture along with the pounded almonds.
Bake and serve
Transfer the mixture to a buttered dish and encase it with puff pastry around the edge.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes, then cool and sprinkle with sugar.
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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Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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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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Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,465 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Brandy + rosetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together560 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
- Sweet almonds
- Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the pudding.
- Bitter almonds or peach kernels
- Add a deep, aromatic almond flavour in small amounts.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender, creamy texture to the batter.
- Powdered white sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the butter cream smoothly.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the batter and help it set in the oven.
- Mixed wine and brandy
- Adds moisture and a warm, boozy aroma to the batter.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Stiff peaks trap air that lightens the batter and helps it rise and set. Over-folding deflates the foam, leaving the pudding dense.
“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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