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Dessert

Fairy Pudding

A custard-based pudding with sponge cake, nuts, cherries, and jelly, topped with whipped cream and fairy butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and pistachio match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Fairy Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a mold with pink jelly.

  2. Soak the crumbled sponge cakes in sherry.

  3. Add soaked sponge cakes to the hot custard.

  4. Dissolve gelatine in a spoonful of hot milk and stir into the custard.

  5. Mix in chopped almonds, pistachios, and quartered cherries.

Set and serve

  1. Fill the mold with the mixture when cool enough not to melt the jelly.

  2. Pour more jelly over the pudding.

  3. Once set, turn out the pudding and surround it with whipped cream.

  4. Color part of the cream pale green for decoration.

  5. Garnish the top with chopped pink jelly and fairy butter.

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. Almond + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Almond + sherrytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

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

  5. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge cakes
Soaked in sherry, they soften and add body and flavour to the custard.
Gelatine
Sets the custard so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.
Boiled custard
Forms the creamy base that binds the other ingredients together.
Chopped almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft custard.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, soft texture around the set pudding.
Glace cherries
Add sweetness and colour through the pudding.

The step that matters

Fill the mold at the right temperature. If the mixture is too hot it will melt the pink jelly lining, but if it is too cool the gelatine may begin to set before filling. Letting it cool just enough keeps the layers distinct and the shape clean.

“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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