Name: Baked Vermicelli
Ingredients: 4 oz. vermicelli; 1 pint new milk; 1 pint cream; 1 teaspoon pounded cinnamon; 4 oz. butter, warmed; 4 oz. white sugar; 4 egg yolks, well beaten; a little oil of almonds or 2 spoonfuls ratafia (optional)

Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Baked Vermicelli

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.

Simmer the vermicelli in the new milk for 10 minutes.
Add the cream, cinnamon, warmed butter, sugar, and beaten egg yolks.
If desired, add oil of almonds or ratafia for flavor.
Bake in an unlined dish at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes if using Genoese vermicelli, or 40 minutes for Neapolitan vermicelli.

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.

Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Vermicelli: Forms the base of the pudding and soaks up the milk and cream as it cooks.
Egg yolks: Set during baking to bind the mixture into a custard-like texture.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the baked pudding a softer, smoother texture.
Cream: Adds richness and moisture, producing a softer, more tender set.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.

“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.