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Dessert

Cold Fruit Pudding

A chilled gelatin dessert made with milk, lemon rind, sugar, cream, egg yolks, citron, candied cherries, and flavored with orange flower water or vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 192 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cold Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Combine milk and lemon rind in a saucepan, then heat slowly until just boiling.

  2. Sprinkle salt and gelatin into the hot mixture, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Strain the mixture through muslin into a clean saucepan.

  4. Add powdered sugar and cream.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring briskly.

  6. Gradually add the beaten egg yolks, thickening the mixture over low heat until it resembles custard.

  7. Remove from heat and flavor with orange‑flower water or vanilla.

  8. Stir until nearly cold.

Set and serve

  1. Fold in the citron and candied cherries.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.

  3. Serve with fruit syrup.

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. Gelatin + syruptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together192 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 as they heat and give it richness and a smooth, set texture.
Isinglass or gelatin
Sets the liquid mixture so the pudding holds its shape when cold.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the pudding and dissolves easily into the hot milk.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken and the gelatin sets.

The step that matters

Gradually add the beaten egg yolks over low heat. Adding yolks too fast or at high heat can scramble them. Adding slowly over low heat lets the custard thicken smoothly without curdling.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, gelatin, sugar, cream, egg, butter, syrup):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, gelatin, sugar, cream, egg, butter, syrup. 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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