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Dessert

Nesselrode Pudding

A rich fruit and nut custard pudding made with raisins, currants, candied fruits, Maraschino cordial, nuts, milk, egg yolks, cream, and crushed macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 558 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Nesselrode Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and nuts

  1. Seed the raisins and wash the currants the day before serving.

  2. Chop the candied citron, ginger, and assorted fruits.

  3. Pour the Maraschino cordial over the fruit and let it soak overnight.

  4. Blanch the chestnuts or almonds in boiling water, then dry them in the oven.

  5. Once cool, pulverize the nuts with the sugar and vanilla bean in a mortar, then sift through a fine sieve.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Beat the egg yolks until light, then mix in the sugar, nuts, and vanilla.

  3. Stir this mixture into the boiling milk and let it thicken, then strain through a fine sieve.

  4. When cool, place the mixture in a freezer and freeze partially.

Assemble and freeze

  1. Whip the thick cream and fold it into the custard along with the soaked fruit and crushed macaroons or meringues.

  2. Freeze everything together until firm.

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. Peach + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together558 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Chestnut + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together244 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Raisin + chestnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Ginger + peachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and smoothness as they set with the hot milk.
Thick cream
Adds fat and whipped volume, giving the frozen pudding a light, creamy texture.
Chestnuts or almonds
Pulverized into the custard, they add body, flavor, and a nutty texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen mixture.
Raisins and currants
Add chewy sweetness and fruity bulk to the frozen pudding.
Candied citron and ginger
Add bright, aromatic sweetness and chew throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Thicken the custard gently after adding the yolks. Egg yolks set when heated, but if the hot milk mixture is overheated or stirred poorly, the yolks can scramble and leave grainy lumps. Straining afterward catches any that form.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, ginger, peach, chestnut, sugar, vanilla, milk):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, ginger, peach, chestnut, sugar, vanilla, milk. 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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