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Dessert

Montrose Pudding

A chilled cream pudding with egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, whipped cream, and a sherbet filling, finished with a brandy and sherry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and raspberry work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 950 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓

Montrose Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, heat 1 pint of cream until hot.

  2. Whisk in the egg yolks and granulated sugar, cooking until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and let cool.

Assemble the pudding

  1. Fold in the whipped cream.

  2. When partially frozen, line a mold and fill the center with sherbet.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, dissolve gelatin in a little hot water.

  2. Whisk in 3 egg yolks, powdered sugar, and 1 pint of cream.

  3. Boil until syrupy, then add the gelatin and remove from heat.

  4. Once cooled, stir in the vanilla, brandy, and sherry.

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. Vanilla + raspberrytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  2. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Vanilla + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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 sauce as their proteins set when gently heated.
Gelatin
Sets the sauce so it holds its body when chilled.
Cream
Adds richness, and when whipped, a light, airy texture.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the custard.
Brandy
Adds warm aroma and flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar into the hot cream until thickened. Egg yolk proteins thicken the custard as they gently set, but if the heat is too high or the mixture is left unstirred, the yolks can scramble and curdle. Keep the custard over gentle, indirect heat and stir constantly until it coats a spoon.

Swap the raspberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, sugar, vanilla, gelatin, brandy, sherry):

  1. Strawberryfits about as well
  2. Apricotfits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar, vanilla, gelatin, brandy, sherry. 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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