Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Frozen Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Bring the milk to a boil.
Beat together the flour and ¼ cup of sugar, then stir the mixture into the boiling milk.
Cook for 20 minutes.
Add the gelatin that has been soaking in water for 1 hour.
Set aside to cool.
Freeze
Mix in the remaining sugar, wine, and cream.
Freeze for 10 minutes.
Add the cherries.
Finish freezing.
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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Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,628 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,778 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the pudding has body rather than running thin.
- Gelatin
- Sets the mixture and gives the frozen pudding a firm, smooth texture.
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, producing a softer, creamier frozen texture.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and lowers the freezing point, keeping it softer when frozen.
- Candied cherries
- Add sweetness, chew and flavour to the frozen pudding.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour mixture into the boiling milk. Flour clumps if added to hot liquid without being well beaten with sugar and stirred constantly, leaving lumps that the pudding cannot smooth out later.
“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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