Why it works: Pistachio and nuts match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Ice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the custard
Dissolve the sugar in the cold custard and half freeze it.
Decorate the bottom of a mold with pieces of candied fruits and pistachios.
Chop the remaining fruits and nuts, then add them to the half-frozen custard with sherry and liqueur.
Freeze again for a few minutes, then stir in the whipped cream and mix well.
Freeze all together until thick, then pack into the mold.
Freeze and serve
Cover the lid joints with lard or butter, then bury in ice and salt for two hours or longer.
When ready to serve, turn out onto fancy paper and serve immediately.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Pistachio + nutstop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together425 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Pistachio + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together634 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Nuts + creamtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together886 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Sherry + creamtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,038 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Custard
- Forms the creamy base that freezes into the pudding's body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen mixture.
- Whipped cream
- Adds air and richness, giving a lighter, smoother frozen texture.
- Sherry
- Adds aroma and flavour to the custard base.
- Maraschino or other liqueur
- Adds aroma and flavour, and lowers freezing hardness slightly.
The step that matters
Half freezing the custard before adding the fruit and cream. Partly frozen custard holds fruit and whipped cream evenly suspended; fully frozen custard stays icy and lumpy, while fully liquid custard lets fruit sink and cream deflate.
Swap the pistachio
The recipe marks pistachio as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nuts, sherry, cream):
- Almondfits about as well
- Pistachiothe original
- Chestnutfits less well
- Cocoafits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nuts, sherry, cream. 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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