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Almond Pudding

A baked almond pudding with a currant jelly and claret sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pudding

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped almonds, flour, and corn starch.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and vanilla extract, then combine with the almond mixture.

  4. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gently fold them into the mixture.

  5. Grease small timball molds with butter and fill them with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the molds with buttered paper and place them in a pan with water reaching three-quarters up the sides.

  2. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a straw inserted comes out clean.

  3. Remove the pudding from the molds.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, combine currant jelly, claret, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a saucepan.

  2. Heat the sauce until warm and strain before serving.

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. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + corntop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the pudding.
Eggs
Egg whites give the pudding lift and structure, while yolks add richness and moisture.
Flour
Adds structure so the batter holds its shape while baking.
Corn starch
Gives a tender, light texture by softening the crumb.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity tartness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites trap air that gives the pudding its rise. Overmixing or deflating them with vigorous stirring makes the pudding dense, so fold gently until just combined.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, flour, corn, egg, vanilla, butter, sugar):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, flour, corn, egg, vanilla, butter, sugar. 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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