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Dessert

Cold Fruit Pudding

A chilled dessert made from milk, lemon rind, sugar, cream, egg yolks, citron, candied cherries, and flavored with orange‑flower water or vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cold Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Heat the milk with the lemon rind by the side of the fire until it reaches boiling point and is strongly flavored.

  2. Sprinkle in a small pinch of salt and the isinglass or gelatine. Stir until dissolved.

  3. Strain the mixture into a clean saucepan.

  4. Add the powdered sugar and rich cream.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring briskly.

  6. Gradually add the beaten egg yolks.

  7. Thicken the mixture over low heat, being careful not to overheat.

  8. Pour the thickened mixture into a basin.

  9. Flavor with orange‑flower water or vanilla.

  10. Stir until nearly cold.

Set and serve

  1. Fold in the citron and candied cherries.

  2. Pour into a buttered mold.

  3. Serve with any kind of fruit syrup.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard sets from.
Egg yolks
Thicken the base into a rich custard and add richness.
Isinglass or gelatine
Sets the pudding so it holds its shape when cold.
Rich cream
Adds fat for a smooth, creamy texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the pudding and softens its set.
Candied cherries
Add chewy pieces and sweetness throughout the set pudding.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture over low heat. Egg yolks scramble if overheated, which makes the custard grainy and curdled. Gentle heat lets them thicken smoothly without curdling.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cream, egg, butter, syrup. 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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