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Dessert

Nesselrode Pudding

A chilled pudding made with eggs, milk, sugar, heavy cream, and chopped candied chestnuts, churned in a freezer.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Nesselrode Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler with a pinch of baking soda.

  2. Beat the eggs until smooth and whip in the sugar until light.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the hot milk, constantly stirring until smooth and rich, but do not let it boil.

  4. Remove the mixture from heat and let it cool.

  5. Stir in the heavy cream.

Freeze and churn

  1. Pour the mixture into a freezer.

  2. Churn until it congeals, about 7 minutes.

  3. Open the freezer.

  4. Fold in the chopped marrons glaces.

  5. Churn for an additional 5 minutes.

  6. Pack the pudding in ice and salt.

  7. Let it stand for 3 hours.

  8. Wipe off the freezer.

Unmold and serve

  1. Wrap the pudding in a hot towel.

  2. Invert it onto a chilled platter.

  3. Surround with whipped cream.

  4. Serve.

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. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Eggs
Set the custard and give it a smooth, rich structure when gently cooked.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the eggs thicken.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen pudding.
Heavy cream
Adds fat for a creamy, smooth texture that resists iciness.
Marrons glaces
Contribute chunks of candied chestnut for sweetness and bite.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard without boiling. If the egg mixture boils, the eggs scramble and the custard turns grainy. Stirring constantly over gentle heat thickens it smoothly.

“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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