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Dessert

Jerusalem Pudding

A chilled dessert made with whipped cream, boiled rice, figs, dates, gelatin, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and dates work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Jerusalem Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in ½ cup of water until softened.

Make the pudding

  1. In a large bowl, combine the whipped cream, boiled rice, chopped figs, and chopped dates.

  2. Add the soaked gelatin and powdered sugar to the mixture.

  3. Flavor with lemon or vanilla as desired.

Chill

  1. Place the bowl in ice water to chill until set.

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. Fig + datestop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Rice + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the whipped cream and fruit mixture into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture to the pudding.
Boiled rice
Adds body and a soft, tender bite to the pudding.
Chopped figs
Provide sweetness, fruity flavor and chewy texture.
Chopped dates
Provide sweetness, caramel-like flavor and chewy texture.

The step that matters

Chill until set. Gelatine only firms when the mixture is cold enough, so the pudding must chill fully in ice water before it is served. Stopping early leaves it soft and unable to hold its shape.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, rice, fig, dates, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, rice, fig, dates, 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.

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