Skip to main content
Dessert

Cold Fruit Pudding

A chilled dessert made from milk, lemon rind, gelatin, sugar, cream, egg yolks, fruit, and flavored with orange flower water or vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Cold Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk with the lemon rind until just boiling.

  2. Sprinkle in salt.

  3. Dissolve the isinglass or gelatin.

  4. Strain into a clean saucepan.

  5. Add powdered sugar and cream.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Stir in the beaten egg yolks gradually.

  8. Thicken the mixture over low heat.

  9. Pour into a basin and flavor with orange-flower water or vanilla.

  10. Stir until nearly cold.

Set and serve

  1. Add citron and cherries.

  2. Pour into a buttered mold.

  3. Refrigerate until set.

  4. Serve with fruit syrup.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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 set on gentle heat and add richness.
Isinglass or gelatin
Sets the liquid custard so the pudding holds its shape when chilled.
Rich cream
Adds fat and softness, giving the pudding a smooth, creamy texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and dissolves easily into the warm milk and cream.
New milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the yolks thicken.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture over low heat. Egg yolks curdle if the custard gets too hot or boils after the yolks are added. Gentle heat lets them thicken smoothly into a custard.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, lemon, gelatin, sugar, cream, egg, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, lemon, gelatin, sugar, cream, egg, butter. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes