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 Cherry Pudding with Avhipped Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cherry base
Combine the sugar and cold water in a pot and bring to a boil.
Add the stoned cherries to the boiling sugar and cook until just tender, about a few minutes, without breaking them.
Stir the corn starch with 1 cup of cold water in a bowl until smooth.
Stir the corn starch mixture into the cherries and cook, stirring often, until the mixture thickens.
Mold and chill
Pour the mixture into molds that have been wet with cold water.
Let the mixture cool.
Place the molds next to ice to chill completely.
Serve
Serve the pudding turned out from the molds, surrounded by cold 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.
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Corn + creamtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Morella cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and tender pieces that set into the pudding.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps form the syrup the cherries cook in.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the cherry liquid as it heats so the pudding holds its shape when chilled.
The step that matters
Stirring the corn starch into the cherries. Corn starch must be fully smooth before it goes in and the mixture must be stirred while it cooks, otherwise lumps form and the starch may not thicken evenly.
“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.
Corn Cake90 recipes
Corn Starch Cake89 recipes
Corn Cakes22 recipes
Green Corn Pudding14 recipes