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Dessert

Frozen Pudding

A chilled dessert made from milk, sugar, flour, eggs, cream, candied cherries, sherry, and crushed macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat together the flour, sugar, and eggs.

  3. Stir the mixture into the boiling milk.

  4. Cook in a double boiler for 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cooled, add the cream, candied cherries, sherry, and crushed macaroons.

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

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

  2. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Thickens the custard as it cooks, giving it body.
Eggs
Set and thicken the custard, adding richness and structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen dessert.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture that resists iciness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.
Crushed macaroons
Add almond-flavored crunch and a toasty, sweet aroma.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard while it cooks. Flour and egg proteins can clump or scorch on the bottom if left unstirred. A double boiler and constant stirring keep the heat gentle and the custard smooth.

“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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