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Dessert

Frozen Pudding

A chilled dessert made from milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, candied fruit, and sherry, frozen into a smooth pudding.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Frozen Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Add flour and a little salt, stirring to combine.

  3. Beat the egg yolks until smooth and add to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the sugar and cook until it thickens, about 15-20 minutes.

  5. Let the mixture cool, then add thick cream, quart of milk, and vanilla.

Freeze and serve

  1. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker.

  2. When nearly frozen, fold in the soaked candied fruit.

  3. Serve once fully frozen.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Flour
Helps thicken the custard so it holds body after cooling and freezing.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the dessert softer.
Thick cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture that resists iciness.
Candied fruit
Adds sweet chewy pieces and flavor throughout the frozen dessert.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until it thickens. Egg yolks and flour must be cooked enough to thicken the base; undercooked yolks stay thin and can taste raw, while overcooking can curdle the eggs. A properly thickened base freezes smoothly.

“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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