Why it works: Pineapple and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 911 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Nesselrode Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chestnuts and fruit
Boil the chestnuts until tender.
Peel and wash the chestnuts.
Cut the candied fruit into small pieces.
Cover the candied fruit with sherry.
Make the custard
Boil the sugar in ½ cup of water for 15 minutes.
Beat the egg yolks until very light.
Remove the sugar and water mixture from heat.
Stir the egg yolks into the mixture.
Return the mixture to heat.
Stir until it reaches boiling point.
Cool the mixture.
Assemble and freeze
Add the whipped cream, fruit, chestnuts, sherry, and vanilla to the mixture when cold.
Place the mixture in a mold.
Freeze the mold for 4 hours.
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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Pineapple + vanillatop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together911 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Chestnut + vanillatop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together244 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sherry + pineappletop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together228 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together506 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg yolks thicken the cooked mixture and give the pudding its rich, smooth body.
- Whipped cream
- Adds air and fat, giving a light, creamy texture once frozen.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps keep it soft rather than rock-hard when frozen.
- Chestnuts
- Provide the main starchy, nutty body and flavour of the pudding.
- Sherry
- Adds aroma and flavour to the candied fruit and the pudding.
The step that matters
Stir the egg yolks into the hot sugar mixture and bring it to a boil. Egg yolks can scramble if added to very hot liquid without care. Stirring constantly while the mixture is gently heated and brought just to a boil thickens the custard smoothly. Cooling it fully before adding the cream keeps the cream from melting or separating.
Swap the chestnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, sugar, cream, pineapple, vanilla, egg):
- Almondfits about as well
- Chestnutthe original
- Pistachiofits less well
- Hazelnutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, sugar, cream, pineapple, vanilla, egg. 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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