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Dessert

Frozen Pudding

A chilled custard pudding with almonds, raisins, currants, citron, rose water, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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. Make a custard by heating the milk and cream, then whisk in the eggs and sweeten to taste.

  2. Blend the almonds until smooth, then mix in rose water.

  3. Flour the raisins, currants, and citron.

Combine and finish

  1. Pour the hot custard over the floured fruit and mix thoroughly.

  2. Let it cool, then fold in the whipped cream.

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. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Rose + curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together494 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard and give it body as they thicken with gentle heat.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty texture to the custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding moisture and softness.
Whipped cream
Folded in at the end to lighten the chilled mixture and add airiness.
Almonds
Contribute nutty flavour and body when blended into a smooth paste.

The step that matters

Pour the hot custard over the floured fruit and mix thoroughly. Hot custard must be mixed evenly so the eggs stay smoothly thickened and the fruit is distributed. Flouring the fruit helps keep it suspended rather than sinking to the bottom.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, egg, almond, rose, raisin):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, egg, almond, rose, raisin. 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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