Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Iced Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Combine egg yolks, sugar, and boiled milk in a saucepan to make a boiled custard. Flavor with vanilla to taste.
Freeze the custard according to standard ice cream freezing methods.
Add fruit and cream
When nearly frozen, add the mixed canned or dried fruit, candied citron, currants, and raisins.
Cover and freeze for a few more minutes, then fold in the whipped cream and maraschino liqueur.
Freeze and serve
Pack the mixture into a mold and finish freezing as per standard ice cream instructions.
Serve with a sauce of whipped cream.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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 base and add richness through their fat and emulsifiers.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the texture softer.
- Boiled milk
- Forms the liquid base that the custard is built on and freezes into the pudding.
- Whipped cream
- Adds air and fat, giving a light, creamy texture after freezing.
- Maraschino liqueur
- Adds aroma and flavor, and its alcohol keeps the frozen texture softer.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped cream and liqueur. Fold the cream in only after the mixture is partly frozen. If it is still liquid, the cream deflates and dilutes the custard, and if it is too firm, the cream will not blend evenly and the air is lost.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, cream, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, cream, raisin. 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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