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Dessert

Iced Pudding

A chilled dessert made from milk, cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla, brandy or sherry, biscuit crumbs, and dried fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Iced Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla.

  2. Add the milk and place the mixture in a jug or lined saucepan of boiling water, stirring until thick.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the biscuit crumbs, brandy or sherry, and whipped cream.

Freeze and layer

  1. Place the mixture in an icing machine.

  2. When frozen, put a little at the bottom of an ice pudding mold.

  3. Sprinkle chopped fruit between layers of the ice.

  4. Pack the layers tightly.

  5. Cover securely.

  6. Place the mold in a pail of ice and salt.

Unmold

  1. When frozen, dip in water and turn out.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together422 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

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

  5. Brandy + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla 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

Eggs
Thicken the custard base and add richness when cooked gently with the milk.
Cream
Adds fat and a smooth, light texture to the frozen pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and keeps the frozen result creamy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the pudding softer.
Dried fruit
Adds chewy texture and sweetness between the layers of ice.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until thick. Heating the eggs gently over simmering water thickens them without scrambling. Overheating curdles the eggs, giving a grainy texture that stays after freezing.

“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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