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Frozen Plum Pudding

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Frozen Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Make a rich chocolate custard.

  2. Add the stale fruit cake crumbs and mixed spices.

  3. Freeze the mixture halfway.

  4. Stir in the currants, raisins, and brandy.

  5. Mold the mixture into a shape and freeze until solid.

  6. For the sauce, beat the egg and mix it with the whipped cream and additional brandy.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  4. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Raspberryfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Red currantfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, brandy, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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