Why it works: Filbert and nuts work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 38 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Filbert and Wine Iced Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the cream and nuts
Whip the cream with 4 tablespoons of sugar and ⅓ cup of sherry until solid.
Freeze the whipped cream.
Place the filberts in a 300°F (150°C) oven until the skins can be rubbed off. Rub the nuts in cloths to remove the brown coating.
Pound the filberts with a little thick cream.
Make the filbert batter
Mix the pounded filberts with 4 ounces of sugar and enough thick custard to create a very thick batter. Flavor the batter with lemon or vanilla if desired.
Freeze the batter.
Assemble and pack
Line a mold with the frozen wine cream, about 1 inch thick.
Fill the center with the frozen filbert mixture, pressing it in tightly.
Cover the mold and pack it in ice and salt for 3 hours or until ready to serve.
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.
-
Filbert + nutstop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together38 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Cream + filberttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
-
Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Cream
- Whipped and frozen to form the light, airy wine layer that lines the mold.
- Filberts
- Pounded into the batter to add body, nutty flavor and a firm texture when frozen.
- Sherry
- Adds wine flavor and, with the sugar, keeps the frozen cream softer and easier to scoop.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and nut batter and lowers the freezing point for a softer texture.
- Thick custard
- Binds the pounded nuts into a thick batter with a smooth, rich body.
The step that matters
Pressing the filbert mixture into the mold. Packing it tightly leaves no air gaps, so the frozen layers stay dense and hold a clean shape when unmolded.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, sherry, filbert, nuts):
- Vanillafits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, sherry, filbert, nuts. 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.
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.