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Dessert

Russian Pudding

A gelatin-based dessert made with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Russian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Soak the gelatine in water for one hour.

  2. Heat the milk to boiling point.

  3. Stir in the soaked gelatine until well combined.

  4. Beat the yolks of four eggs with the sugar.

  5. Add the beaten yolks to the milk mixture.

  6. Cook the mixture for two to three minutes.

  7. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  8. Add vanilla for flavor.

Make the sauce

  1. Boil the cream with ½ cup of sugar for one minute for the sauce.

  2. Lightly beat two egg whites.

  3. Stir the beaten egg whites into the sauce with cornstarch.

  4. Flavor the sauce as desired.

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. 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. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Gelatine
Sets the milk and egg mixture into a firm, sliceable dessert.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites add lightness to the pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken and the gelatine sets.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce so it holds together.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture for two to three minutes. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle them. Cooking gently and stopping once the custard coats a spoon keeps the pudding smooth.

“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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