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Frozen Pudding

A chilled gelatin-based pudding made with milk, sugar, flour, eggs, cream, sherry, and candied cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Frozen Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Beat the eggs, flour, and 1 cup of sugar together in a bowl.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the boiling milk and cook for 20 minutes.

  4. Soak the gelatin in cold water, then add it to the mixture and let it cool.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cool, add the sherry wine, remaining sugar, and cream.

  2. Freeze for 10 minutes, then add the candied cherries and finish freezing.

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Set and thicken the custard as they heat, giving the base its body.
Flour
Thickens the custard and helps it hold a smooth, stable texture.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture and gives the frozen pudding a firmer, less icy texture.
Cream
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel after freezing.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture by lowering the freezing point.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs and flour thicken into custard.

The step that matters

Cook the custard for the full 20 minutes. Eggs and flour thicken as they heat, and the starch and egg proteins need enough time at heat to set the base. Undercooked egg can stay thin and unsafe, while the thickened custard gives the frozen pudding its body.

“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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