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Dessert

Nesselrode, or Frozen Pudding

A chilled custard-like pudding made with cream, milk, egg yolks, almonds, sugar, brandy, nectar, preserved fruits, and currants.

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

Nesselrode, or Frozen Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan over low heat, combine cream, milk, egg yolks, pounded almonds, and sugar.

  2. Stir until the mixture thickens like custard, then let it cool.

  3. Once cooled, add brandy and nectar.

Freeze and serve

  1. Freeze the mixture until it begins to congeal.

  2. Chop the preserved fruits and currants, then mix them into the ice.

  3. Transfer the mixture into molds and immerse in a freezing mixture of ice and salt until ready to serve.

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. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

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

  4. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 base and add richness as they set during gentle heating.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the frozen pudding a smooth, tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point, keeping the frozen mixture softer.
Preserved fruits
Add sweetness, chewy texture and concentrated fruit flavour through the frozen base.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour, and its alcohol keeps the frozen mixture from freezing too hard.

The step that matters

Stir the custard gently over low heat. Egg yolks thicken and can scramble if overheated. Keeping the heat low and stirring constantly gives a smooth custard that sets properly before freezing.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, egg, 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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