Why it works: Orange and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,371 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Iced Fruit Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Combine raisins, currants, orange peel, angelica, and Maraschino in a sugar boiler.
Simmer until the liqueur reduces.
Remove from heat.
Make the custard
Boil the cream with the split vanilla bean for one hour, covered.
Whisk egg yolks and powdered sugar together in a separate bowl.
Gradually add the vanilla cream to the egg mixture, stirring over low heat until thickened. Do not boil.
Strain the mixture into a basin, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin from forming. Let it cool.
Freeze and serve
Pour the cooled mixture into a freezer set in ice and begin freezing.
Once it starts to set, gradually mix in the chopped fruit. Stir with a spatula.
Continue freezing until fully set. Serve molded or roughly set on a napkin.
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.
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Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,371 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Angelica + vanillatop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together170 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Orange + angelicatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together159 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Vanilla and sugar 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 give it a rich, smooth set when frozen.
- Cream
- Provides fat and body, giving the frozen pudding a creamy texture.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps keep the frozen texture soft.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the frozen pudding.
- Maraschino liqueur
- Adds aroma and flavour, and is reduced to concentrate it in the fruit.
The step that matters
Gradually add the vanilla cream to the egg mixture, stirring over low heat. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but scramble if they boil. Adding the hot cream slowly and keeping the heat low tempers the yolks so the custard thickens smoothly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, orange, angelica, cream, vanilla, egg, sugar):
- Figfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, orange, angelica, cream, vanilla, egg, sugar. 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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