Skip to main content
Dessert

Frozen Pudding

A chilled custard dessert with currants, raisins, citron, and sponge cake.

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

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Frozen Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk and eggs with sugar to make a soft custard.

  2. Let the custard cool, then place it in a freezing pot.

  3. When partly frozen, add the currants, raisins, and citron to the custard.

Assemble and freeze

  1. Soak the sponge cake slices in wine or brandy.

  2. Put the mixture into a mold and finish freezing.

  3. Layer raisins and soaked cake in a mold until three-quarters full.

  4. Pour lukewarm custard over the cake, cover, and bury in ice and salt.

  5. Let it stand for at least two hours before serving.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard and give the frozen pudding a rich, smooth structure.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, providing moisture and a creamy texture.
Sponge cake
Absorbs the wine or brandy and provides a soft, spongy structure within the mold.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the custard.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Soak the sponge cake slices in wine or brandy.. The cake must absorb enough liquor to soften and flavour evenly. Dry or under-soaked slices stay firm and spongy, and the flavour does not reach the centre of the frozen pudding.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Currantthe original
  4. Apricotfits about as well

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

You might also like

Brandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesCurrant Ice CreamCurrant Ice Cream32 recipesBrandy CreamBrandy Cream21 recipes