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Pudding a LA Macedoine

A gelatin-based fruit pudding made with lemon jelly and assorted fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Pudding a LA Macedoine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the lemon jelly mixture.

Layer the pudding

  1. Place a mold in a pan of ice water and pour in the mixture to a depth of ½ inch.

  2. When firm, decorate with fruit and cover with some of the lemon jelly mixture.

  3. Allow to firm again, then add more fruit and jelly mixture, repeating until all is used. Each time, let the mixture stiffen before adding more fruit.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Banana + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together104 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Orange + figtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

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

  5. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Provides the structure that lets each jelly layer set firm enough to hold fruit.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavor to the jelly.

The step that matters

Let each layer firm before adding the next. Gelatin sets as it cools. Pouring warm jelly onto a layer that has not yet set will melt or blend into it, blurring the layers and leaving the fruit unsupported.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gelatin, sugar, orange, banana, dates, fig):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, sugar, orange, banana, dates, fig. 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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