Skip to main content
Dessert

Frozen Pudding

A chilled dessert made from milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, brandy, vanilla, almond extract, raisins, currants, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Frozen Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine milk, cream, sugar, and egg yolks in a saucepan.

  2. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

  5. Stir in brandy, vanilla, and almond extract.

  6. Pour the mixture into a freezer.

Add the fruit and freeze

  1. Freeze until partially frozen.

  2. Cook raisins in water until softened.

  3. Drain the raisins.

  4. Add raisins, currants, and chopped citron to the partially frozen mixture.

  5. Freeze until smooth.

Set in a mold

  1. Transfer the mixture to a mold.

  2. Pack the mold in ice and salt to set.

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. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with heat and add richness.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture in the frozen pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and sweetness to the frozen mixture.

The step that matters

Heat the custard until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can scramble them into lumps. Stirring constantly and removing from heat once thickened keeps the custard smooth, which carries through to the finished frozen texture.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, sugar, egg, brandy, vanilla, almond):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, sugar, egg, brandy, vanilla, almond. 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

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesCurrant Ice CreamCurrant Ice Cream32 recipes