Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 ↓
Frozen Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.
Remove from heat and stir in ground almonds, chopped citron, raisins, currants, candied orange peel, and candied lemon peel.
Make the base
Whisk egg yolks in a bowl.
Gradually add the hot syrup mixture to the whisked yolks.
Fold in the heavy cream and brandy.
Freeze
Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker.
Freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.
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.
-
Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,781 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
-
Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,125 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Heavy cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the frozen pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify and thicken the base, giving the frozen mixture a custard-like body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and lowers the freezing point, keeping it soft and scoopable.
- Blanched almonds
- Provide nutty flavour and body from the finely ground nuts.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and flavour, and softens freezing by interfering with ice crystal formation.
The step that matters
Adding the hot syrup to the yolks. Pouring hot syrup in too quickly can scramble the egg yolks. Adding it gradually while whisking tempers the yolks, so they thicken smoothly into a custard-like base.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, sugar, almond, raisin, orange, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Cranberryfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar, almond, raisin, orange, lemon. 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
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes