Why it works: Plum and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 284 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Frozen Pudding or Tutti-frutti
Ingredients
Directions
Make the ice cream
Make vanilla ice cream using heavy cream.
Once frozen, mix in the candied fruits that have been cut into fine pieces and soaked in sherry or maraschino with brandy for one hour.
Mold and serve
Turn the mixture into a mold.
Pack the mold in ice and coarse sea salt for two hours before serving, or serve directly from the freezer.
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.
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Plum + apricottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together284 recipes
Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,209 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Apricot + brandytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together513 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Apricot + sherrytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together173 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Plum + sherrytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together58 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
- Heavy cream
- Provides fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
- Candied fruits
- Add sweetness, chewy texture and fruity flavor to the frozen cream.
- Sherry or maraschino
- Adds aromatic, fruity flavor and softens the candied fruit as it soaks.
The step that matters
Mix in the soaked fruit once the ice cream is frozen. Fruit pieces should be cut fine and soaked so they stay tender. Sugar and alcohol lower the freezing point, so soaked fruit stays softer than plain frozen fruit. Adding it while the cream is still liquid would let it sink and spread unevenly.
Swap the plum
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, apricot, sherry, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits about as well
- Plumthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, apricot, sherry, brandy. 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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