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Dessert

Tutti Frutti, or Frozen Pudding

A chilled fruit dessert made with sugar, flour, eggs, milk, vanilla, cream, gelatin, and canned fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Tutti Frutti, or Frozen Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix flour, 1 cup sugar, and eggs together.

  2. Stir the mixture into hot milk and cook for 20 minutes.

  3. Cool slightly.

  4. Add gelatin (previously soaked for 1 hour in cold water).

Freeze

  1. Add the second cup of sugar, vanilla, and whipped cream.

  2. Freeze for 10 minutes like ice cream.

  3. Add the cut fruit and freeze solid.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 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

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook, giving the pudding body and richness.
Gelatin
Sets the frozen mixture so it holds a firm, sliceable texture.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk mixture, helping it cook into a smooth custard.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, creamier frozen texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and softens the frozen texture by lowering its freezing point.

The step that matters

Stir the flour and egg mixture into the hot milk and cook. Eggs and flour can curdle or form lumps if added carelessly; cooking gently while stirring thickens the custard evenly and smoothly before it is chilled.

“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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