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Dessert

Nesselbrode Pudding

A chilled fruit pudding made with chestnuts, candied fruits, raisins, almonds, pineapple, sherry wine, sugar, egg yolks, cream, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Nesselbrode Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the candied fruits and marons in sherry wine.

  2. In a saucepan, combine sugar and ¼ cup boiling water; boil to a syrup.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks until light, then slowly pour in the syrup while stirring continuously.

  2. Place the mixture in a double boiler and cook until thick like cream.

  3. Remove from heat and beat until cold.

Freeze

  1. Once cold, fold in the cream, pounded marons, and vanilla, then freeze.

  2. When nearly frozen, add the candied fruits, raisins, pounded almonds, and sherry wine, then freeze hard.

  3. Remove the dasher and let it stand for several hours.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

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

  2. Pineapple + sherrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Pineapple + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Sherry + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

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

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 as they cook and add richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and, boiled into a syrup, helps keep the frozen texture soft.
Cream
Its fat adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Marons
Pounded chestnuts give the pudding body and a nutty flavor.
Candied fruits
Add sweetness and chewy pieces of fruit flavor.
Pounded almonds
Add fat and nutty flavor, softening the bite of the frozen dessert.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolk custard in the double boiler. Egg yolk proteins set as they heat, which thickens the mixture. Overheating can scramble the yolks into lumps, so cook gently and stop when the custard is thick like cream.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cream, sherry, wine, raisin, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cream, sherry, wine, raisin, almond. 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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