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Dessert

Ice Pudding

A frozen custard made with milk, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, cream, maraschino, dried fruits, and sponge cake layers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Ice Pudding

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 ↓

Ice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a rich custard by heating milk, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla until thick.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in cream and maraschino.

  3. Freeze the custard in a mold.

Assemble and freeze

  1. Layer the frozen custard with slices of sponge cake and dried fruits until the mold is full.

  2. Cover the mold and embed it in ice and salt for 1-2 hours.

  3. Remove from ice, dip in cold water, and turn out onto a dish.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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 through their proteins and fat.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the frozen custard a smoother, softer texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the frozen custard softer.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that is thickened by the egg yolks.
Sponge cake
Adds soft, absorbent layers that hold moisture from the cream or milk.

The step that matters

Heating the custard until thick. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. If the custard overheats, it can curdle or turn grainy, and it will not freeze smoothly. Heat it gently and stop once it coats a spoon.

“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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