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Dessert

Frozen Pudding

A chilled dessert made from milk, sugar, flour, eggs, gelatin, cream, wine, and candied fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Frozen Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. In a bowl, beat the flour and eggs with 1 cup of sugar, then stir into the boiling milk.

  3. Cook for 20 minutes.

  4. Add the gelatin that has been soaked in a little water.

Cool and freeze

  1. Let the mixture cool, then add the remaining sugar, cream, and wine.

  2. Freeze for 10 minutes, then add the candied fruits and finish freezing.

  3. Let it sit for an hour or two to allow the fruit to ripen.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Thickens the milk mixture as it cooks, giving the frozen pudding body.
Eggs
Enriches and thickens the custard, adding richness and structure.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its texture after freezing.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture that resists icy crystals.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the texture soft.
Candied fruits
Add sweetness, chew and flavor to the finished dessert.

The step that matters

Adding the gelatin to the hot custard. Gelatin must be fully dissolved in the soaked water before it is stirred into the hot mixture. Lumps or undissolved gelatin leave gritty spots, and the set depends on it being evenly distributed through the custard.

“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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