Skip to main content
Dessert

Ice Box Pudding

A chilled dessert made with coconut macaroons, ladyfingers, butter, eggs, powdered sugar, and blanched almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Ice Box Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a pan with heavy waxed paper and place a layer of ladyfingers in it.

  2. Crumble the macaroons and spread them over the ladyfingers.

Make the filling

  1. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together.

  2. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  3. Mix in the blanched almonds.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Assemble and chill

  1. Pour part of the mixture over the macaroons, add another layer of macaroons, and top with more mixture.

  2. Allow to harden in the refrigerator overnight.

  3. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to create a rich, smooth base that sets firm when chilled.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the filling, and whipped whites lighten it so it sets with a soft texture.
Lady fingers
Sponge layers that soak up the filling and hold the pudding's structure as it firms.
Cocoanut macaroons
Crumbled layers that add chewy texture and sweetness between the filling layers.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the creamed butter, adding sweetness and a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites trap air that gives lightness. Overmixing or stirring vigorously deflates them, leaving the filling dense and heavy once chilled.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Filbertfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes