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Dessert

Frozen Fruit Pudding

A chilled custard dessert made with milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, and fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Frozen Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until well combined.

  2. Bring the milk to a boil, then carefully stir it into the egg and sugar mixture.

  3. Return the mixture to the kettle and stir over low heat until it thickens slightly. Do not let it boil.

  4. Set the custard aside to cool.

Freeze and pack

  1. Freeze according to ice cream freezing directions.

  2. When partly frozen, add the whipped cream and churn for a little longer.

  3. Stir in the fruit.

  4. Pack into a mold.

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

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

  2. Milk + peachtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  3. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 set gently over low heat.
Rich milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives the pudding its body.
Rich cream
Whipped into the partly frozen mixture to add airiness and a smoother, lighter texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and lowers the freezing point, keeping the frozen texture soft.
Peaches or berries
Add fruit flavor, aroma and moisture to the finished pudding.

The step that matters

Do not let the custard boil. Egg yolks scramble and curdle when overheated, leaving a grainy custard. Stirring gently over low heat lets the yolks thicken it smoothly.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

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