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Dessert

Iced Pudding

A chilled fruit pudding made with apricots, greengages, cherries, angelica, mixed peel, brandy, isinglass, milk, sugar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and brandy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 513 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Iced Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Chop the candied preserved fruits into small pieces.

  2. Place the chopped fruit in a basin.

  3. Pour the curaçao or brandy over the chopped fruit.

Make the custard base

  1. Dissolve the isinglass and sugar by boiling them in the milk for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly.

  2. Strain the mixture into a basin.

  3. Gradually add the cream while stirring until it begins to thicken.

  4. Fold in the fruit until well mixed with the cream.

Set, chill and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a round mold and let it set.

  2. Once set, place the mold in rough ice for 2 hours or longer.

  3. Turn the pudding into a glass dish.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Apricot + brandytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Apricot + angelicatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together117 recipes

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

  4. Apricot + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together826 recipes

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

  5. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelatine-like setting agent that firms the cream so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.
Fresh double cream
Provides richness and a smooth, thick body once whipped or thickened into the mixture.
Milk
Liquid that dissolves the isinglass and sugar and forms the base of the mixture.
Cherries
Candied fruit adding sweetness, colour and chewy texture to the pudding.
Mixed peel
Candied peel adding citrus aroma and a slightly bitter, chewy note.
Apricots
Candied fruit adding sweetness, soft texture and fruity flavour.

The step that matters

Dissolve the isinglass fully before adding the cream. Isinglass must be completely dissolved by boiling in the milk, then cooled enough to thicken the cream without clumping. Undissolved isinglass leaves gritty specks and the pudding may not set firmly.

Swap the angelica

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apricot, brandy, milk, sugar, cream):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, brandy, milk, sugar, cream. 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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