Name: Nesselrode Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint water; 6 egg yolks; 1 pound sugar; 1 pint grated apple; French candied fruit, chopped very fine; 1 tablespoon vanilla; cooked chestnuts, pressed through a strainer; whipped cream

Why it works: Vanilla and chestnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 244 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Nesselrode Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the chestnuts until tender, then remove the shell and brown skins.
Press the chestnut pulp through a strainer.
Boil the sugar and water together for five minutes.
Beat the egg yolks until light, then add to the boiling syrup, beating continuously until thick and cool.
Stir in the chopped candied fruit, grated apple, pineapple, and chestnuts.
Put the mixture into a freezer. Once frozen, stir in the whipped cream until well combined.

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.

Vanilla + chestnuttop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together244 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,501 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Apple + chestnuttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together95 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

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

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, vanilla, chestnut, cream):

Figfits better
Coconutfits better
Strawberryfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, vanilla, chestnut, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.