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Dessert

Italian Pudding

A custard dessert made with eggs, milk, sugar, gelatin, and vanilla, set in a mold and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Italian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Separate the whites and yolks of the eggs.

  2. Make a boiled custard with the yolks, milk, and sugar to taste.

Set the gelatin

  1. Soak the gelatin in a little cold water for a few minutes.

  2. Dissolve the soaked gelatin in the boiling water.

  3. Once the custard has cooled, add the gelatin mixture and the beaten egg whites.

  4. Flavor with vanilla and stir everything together.

  5. Pour the mixture into a mold and let it set.

Serve

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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
Yolks thicken the custard and whites, when beaten, lighten the pudding's texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing richness and body.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid custard into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cools.

The step that matters

Make the boiled custard. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating causes them to scramble and curdle. Cook gently and stir constantly until the custard coats a spoon.

“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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