Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Ice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Boil the milk with the gelatin until dissolved.
Beat the eggs and mix with the milk as you would for custard.
When the milk boils again, remove it from heat.
Set and serve
Grease a tin mold and line it with candied fruits.
Pour the custard into the mold gradually to keep the fruit at the bottom.
Cover the mold and bury it in ice for the entire day.
Turn out the pudding only when 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Milk
- Forms the body of the custard and carries the flavour of the pudding.
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid custard into a firm, sliceable pudding as it chills.
- Eggs
- Thicken the custard through gentle heat and add richness and structure.
The step that matters
Pour the custard gradually into the mold. Pouring slowly lets the candied fruit stay where it was placed instead of floating or shifting. Gentle pouring also avoids disturbing the lining, so the fruit stays on the bottom when the pudding is turned out.
“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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