Skip to main content
Dessert

Frozen Pudding

A chilled dessert made from milk, sugar, flour, eggs, gelatin, cream, candied fruit, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Frozen Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. In a bowl, beat together the flour, 1 cup of sugar, and eggs.

  3. Stir the boiling milk into the egg mixture.

  4. Soak the gelatin in enough water to cover it for 1-2 hours, then add it to the mixture.

  5. Set the mixture aside to cool.

Freeze and set

  1. Once cool, add the vanilla, remaining sugar, and cream.

  2. Freeze for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the candied fruit and continue freezing until firm.

  4. Remove the heater, pack smoothly, and set aside for 1 hour.

Serve

  1. To serve, dip the tin in warm water and turn out the pudding.

  2. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 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 set with heat, giving the pudding body and structure.
Gelatin
Sets the frozen pudding so it holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a smooth, creamy texture after freezing.
Flour
Thickens the egg and milk mixture so the custard has body.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the pudding and softens the texture of the frozen dessert.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.

The step that matters

Stir the boiling milk into the egg mixture. Adding hot milk gradually to the eggs, rather than all at once, helps prevent the eggs from scrambling while the custard thickens smoothly.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes