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Dessert

Macaroon Pudding

A custard-like dessert made with macaroons, sherry, eggs, milk, cream, sugar, salt, almonds, and almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Macaroon Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Soak the macaroons

  1. Soak a dozen macaroons in sherry wine for 10 minutes, then remove them.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs slightly, then add sugar, salt, milk, cream, chopped almonds, almond extract, and 4 finely powdered macaroons.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pudding dish and arrange the soaked macaroons on top.

Bake

  1. Cover and bake for 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Sherry + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

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

  3. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

  5. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroons
Soaked macaroons add sherry flavour and a soft, moist body, while powdered macaroons thicken the custard.
Eggs
Eggs set the custard as they heat, giving the pudding its structure.
Milk
Milk adds moisture and dilutes the custard so it bakes soft rather than dry.
Cream
Cream adds richness and fat, giving the custard a smoother, silkier texture.
Sugar
Sugar adds sweetness and helps balance the eggs and sherry.

The step that matters

Cover and bake the custard. Covering the dish traps moisture so the eggs set gently. Without cover, the top can dry out and the custard can overcook and turn grainy.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, wine, egg, sugar, milk, cream):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Cocoafits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Peasfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, wine, egg, sugar, milk, cream. 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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