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Nesselrode Pudding

A chilled chestnut pudding with candied fruit, raisins, sherry, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chestnut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 244 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Nesselrode Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chestnuts

  1. Shell the chestnuts.

  2. Blanch the chestnuts.

  3. Cook the chestnuts in boiling water until soft.

  4. Press the chestnuts through a sieve.

Make the custard

  1. Combine sweet cream, egg yolks, sugar, and salt to make custard.

  2. Stir in the chestnut puree.

  3. Cool the custard.

  4. Freeze the mixture for 10 minutes.

  5. Fold in the whipped cream.

  6. Finish freezing the mixture.

Add the fruit and freeze

  1. Chop the candied fruit.

  2. Mix the candied fruit with raisins, sherry wine, and vanilla.

  3. Let the mixture stand until the cream is frozen.

  4. Mix the fruit mixture well with the cream.

  5. Fill a mold with the mixture.

  6. Cover the mold.

  7. Pack the mold in ice and salt.

  8. Let stand for 2 hours.

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. Chestnut + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together244 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Chestnut + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

French chestnuts
Provide the main body and sweet, starchy flavor once pureed into the custard.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and give it a rich texture as it cooks and freezes.
Sweet cream
Supplies fat and moisture, giving the frozen dessert a smooth, creamy texture.
Whipped cream
Adds air and lightness, making the frozen dessert softer and more airy.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and lowers its freezing point for a softer frozen texture.
Candied fruit
Adds chewy pieces and concentrated sweetness throughout the frozen dessert.

The step that matters

Finish freezing the mixture after folding in the whipped cream. Whipped cream deflates if it is over-stirred or left to warm, so the mixture should be folded gently and returned to the freezer promptly to keep it light and set evenly.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chestnut, cream, egg, sugar, sherry, wine, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chestnut, cream, egg, sugar, sherry, wine, vanilla. 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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