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Dessert

Nesselrode Pudding

A custard pudding made with cream, milk, sugar, almonds, egg yolks, vanilla, brandy, raisins, and preserved fruit.

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 ↓

Nesselrode Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Prepare a custard by combining cream, milk, sugar, pounded almonds, egg yolks, and vanilla in a pan over low heat.

  2. Stir until the mixture thickens, being careful not to let it boil.

  3. Once cooled, add the brandy.

Freeze and shape

  1. Partially freeze the mixture.

  2. Fold in the raisins and preserved fruit.

  3. Mix well and mold into shape.

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. Almond + vanillatop 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 and add richness as they set over gentle heat.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the frozen pudding a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen mixture.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
Preserved fruit
Adds chunks of sweet, concentrated fruit flavor and chewy texture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor, and its alcohol keeps the frozen texture softer.

The step that matters

Stir the custard without letting it boil. Egg yolks thicken gently as they warm; if the mixture boils, the proteins scramble and the custard turns grainy and curdled.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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