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Dessert

Frozen Plum Pudding

A chilled pudding made with milk, raisins, egg yolks, sugar, almonds, citron, vanilla, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Frozen Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine the milk and raisins in a double boiler and cook for 15 minutes.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together.

  3. Add the mixture to the hot milk mixture.

Flavour and freeze

  1. Once cooled, stir in the chopped citron, blanched almonds, ginger, and vanilla.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  3. Freeze 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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

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

  5. Raisin + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives it a creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard when heated and add richness to the frozen pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and keeps the frozen texture softer.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and sweetness as they soften in the warm milk.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture to the hot milk. Egg yolks can scramble if they meet very hot liquid too quickly. Combining them gradually while stirring keeps the custard smooth and lets it thicken evenly.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, raisin, egg, sugar, almond, vanilla):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, raisin, egg, sugar, almond, vanilla. 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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