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Dessert

Crystal Palace Pudding

A gelatin-based pudding made with cream, milk, cornflour, egg yolks, vanilla, and served with glace cherries.

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 ↓

Crystal Palace Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine or isinglass in a little water.

  2. Heat the cream.

  3. Strain the heated cream into the dissolved gelatine.

  4. Blend the cornflour smoothly with the milk.

  5. Mix the cornflour-milk mixture with the cream.

Make the custard

  1. Sweeten to taste.

  2. Stir the mixture.

  3. Boil gently for 10 minutes.

  4. Let it cool slightly.

  5. Add the egg yolks and a few drops of vanilla essence.

  6. Stir until the mixture begins to set.

Set and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into small moulds decorated with glace cherries.

  2. Once firm, turn the pudding out of the moulds.

  3. Dish up the pudding.

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

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

Gelatine or isinglass
Sets the cream mixture into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cools.
Cornflour
Thickens the milk and cream so the mixture becomes smooth and body-rich when boiled.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the custard as it gently heats.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture and a mellow flavour.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 10 minutes. Cornflour needs to reach a simmer to swell and thicken fully, but a hard boil can break the mixture and curdle the egg yolks added later. Keep the heat low and steady.

“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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