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Dessert

Cold Fruit Pudding

A chilled dessert made from milk, lemon rind, sugar, cream, egg yolks, citron, candied cherries, and flavored with orange flower water or vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 192 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cold Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk with the lemon rind by the fire until it reaches boiling point and is strongly flavored.

  2. Sprinkle in a pinch of salt and the isinglass or gelatin. Stir until dissolved.

  3. Strain the mixture into a clean saucepan, then add the powdered sugar and rich cream.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring briskly, then gradually add the beaten egg yolks.

  5. Thicken the mixture over low heat like custard, being careful not to overheat.

  6. Pour into a basin and flavor with orange-flower water or vanilla.

Set and serve

  1. Stir until nearly cold, then fold in the citron and candied cherries.

  2. Pour into a buttered mold and refrigerate until set.

  3. Serve with any kind of fruit syrup.

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. Gelatin + syruptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together192 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 cook gently.
Isinglass or gelatin
Sets the liquid so the pudding holds its shape when chilled.
Rich cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and softer mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard and carries the lemon flavor.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and dissolves smoothly into the hot liquid.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture over low heat like custard, being careful not to overheat.. Egg yolks scramble if heated too fast or too hot, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth, thickened custard.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, gelatin, sugar, cream, egg, butter, syrup):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, gelatin, sugar, cream, egg, butter, syrup. 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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