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Dessert

Frozen Cherry Pudding

A chilled dessert made from sweet cream, eggs, powdered sugar, candied cherries, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Frozen Cherry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, heat the cream.

  2. Stir in the beaten eggs and cook until thick, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cool, mix in the powdered sugar, candied cherries, and sherry.

  2. Freeze the mixture until 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + sherrytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 cream into a custard as they set when gently heated.
Sweet cream
Provides richness and fat, giving the frozen pudding a smooth, creamy texture.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the cooled custard and adds sweetness.
Candied cherries
Add sweetness, chewy texture and fruit flavor throughout the pudding.
Sherry
Adds aroma and flavor, and its alcohol keeps the frozen texture softer.

The step that matters

Cook the eggs until thick, stirring constantly. Eggs set when heated, so cooking them slowly in a double boiler while stirring keeps the custard smooth. Overheating can scramble the eggs into curds.

“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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