Why it works: Milk and plum work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 406 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Ice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Boil the milk with the gelatin.
Beat the eggs and mix them with the milk as for custard.
Set the pudding
Oil a tin mould and line it with the canned fruits.
Pour the custard in gradually to keep the fruit at the bottom.
Cover the mould and bury it in ice for a whole day.
Turn it out just before serving.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + plumtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together406 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + plumtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together794 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- New milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets into the pudding.
- Gelatine
- Sets the custard so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.
- Eggs
- Thicken the milk as they cook, giving the custard its body and richness.
- Canned fruits
- Form the decorative layer that sits on top when the pudding is turned out.
The step that matters
Pour the custard in gradually. Pouring slowly lets the custard settle around the fruit rather than floating it up, so the fruit stays at the bottom of the mould when it is turned out.
Swap the plum
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Plumthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg. 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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