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Maple Cream Pudding

A chilled dessert made with maple syrup, eggs, gelatin, whipped cream, pecans, and macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and gelatin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Maple Cream Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the maple syrup.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs in a bowl.

  3. Add the hot syrup to the beaten yolks and mix well.

  4. Return the mixture to the stove and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Let the mixture cool.

  6. Dissolve the gelatin in a little water and add it to the cooled mixture.

Finish and freeze

  1. Fold in the whipped cream, chopped pecans, and macaroons.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold and freeze.

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. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Maple syrup + pecanstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Egg + pecanstop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,280 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Maple syrup + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together607 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + pecanstop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together706 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and add richness as they cook.
Whipped cream
Adds air and fat, giving the frozen pudding a light, creamy texture.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when frozen and sliced.
Maple syrup
Provides the main sweetness and maple flavour.

The step that matters

Cook the yolk and syrup mixture, stirring constantly. Egg yolks thicken when heated, but if they get too hot they can scramble into lumps. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the custard thickens smoothly.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (maple syrup, cream, egg, gelatin):

  1. Pecansthe original
  2. Nutsfits about as well
  3. Almondfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against maple syrup, cream, egg, gelatin. 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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