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Dessert

Nesselrode or Ice Pudding

An ice pudding made with cream, milk, egg yolks, vanilla, almonds, sugar, brandy, raisins, and preserved fruits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and raisin 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 ↓

Nesselrode or Ice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine cream, milk, egg yolks, vanilla, almonds, and sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened, but do not let it boil.

  3. Once cooled, stir in brandy.

Freeze and shape

  1. Partially freeze the mixture.

  2. Add raisins and preserved fruits and mix well.

  3. Mold into a basket shape.

  4. Freeze until firm.

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. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + almondtop 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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set during gentle heating.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the frozen dessert.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the pudding softer.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness in each bite.
Preserved fruits
Add sweetness, chewy texture and fruity flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Heating the custard gently. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but if the mixture boils they can scramble and turn grainy. Stirring constantly over low heat spreads the heat evenly and keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

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

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