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
Make the custard
Make a custard by whisking together the eggs, milk, and sugar in a saucepan over low heat until thickened.
Strain the custard and let it cool.
Freeze and finish
Pour the cooled custard into a freezing pot and freeze until it is half frozen.
Add the chopped glace fruits, pistachios, Maraschino, and brandy to the mixture.
Fold in the whipped cream gently and refreeze until fully set.
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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Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,738 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,635 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness as they set over gentle heat.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that the eggs thicken.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen dessert.
- Whipped cream
- Adds fat and air, keeping the frozen pudding light and smooth.
- Glace fruits
- Add sweetness, chewy texture and fruity flavour through the frozen base.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard over low heat. Eggs thicken gently at low heat; too much heat scrambles them into lumps, which then cannot be smoothed out after freezing.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, pistachio, brandy, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, pistachio, brandy, 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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