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Dessert

Nesslerode Pudding, or Plum Pudding Glace

A layered sponge cake and fruit pudding set in a chocolate custard glaze, chilled and served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Nesslerode Pudding, or Plum Pudding Glace

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Prepare a tin mold with a tight-fitting cover.

  2. Slice the sponge cake into ½-inch thick pieces and soak them in wine.

  3. Layer the soaked cake in the bottom of the mold, followed by a layer of fruit, using raisins, currants, and any preserved, candied, or brandied fruits.

  4. Continue layering cake and fruit until the mold is nearly full, leaving space between the cake and the sides.

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of gelatine in the chocolate custard after soaking it for 30 minutes.

  2. Once the custard is cold, fill the mold with it, cover tightly, and pack it in a tub of salt and ice.

  3. Leave undisturbed for 10 to 12 hours.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, remove the pudding from the mold and pour 1 pint of cream over it.

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. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  3. Wine + curranttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Wine + creamtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Currant + chocolatetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together111 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Bakers’ sponge cake
Forms the structure of the pudding, soaking up wine so the layers hold together.
Gelatine
Sets the chocolate custard so the pudding can be turned out and sliced.
Rich chocolate custard
Fills the spaces between cake and fruit, adding moisture and a creamy, rich texture.
Raisins and currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness among the cake layers.
Wine
Moistens the sponge cake and adds acidity and aroma to the layers.

The step that matters

Leave space between the cake and the sides of the mold. Leaving a gap lets the custard settle around the layers as it sets, so the pudding holds together and turns out cleanly when chilled.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, currant, chocolate, cream):

  1. Raspberryfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, currant, chocolate, 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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