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Dessert

Diplomat Pudding

A chilled cream pudding mixed with jam, macaroons, and chocolate, flavored with vanilla and set in a salt and ice bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Diplomat Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cream

  1. Whip the cream until stiff.

  2. Divide the whipped cream into three parts.

  3. Sweeten each part to taste.

  4. In one part, mix in your choice of jam.

  5. In another part, add the macaroons.

  6. In the last part, mix in chocolate.

  7. Flavor all parts with vanilla extract.

Freeze

  1. Pack the mixtures into a mold.

  2. Surround the mold with salt and ice.

  3. Let it set for at least 3 to 4 hours.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  3. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Cream and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,301 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

Heavy cream
Whipped into stiff foam that gives the pudding its light, airy body.
Macaroons
Add texture and sweetness as they soften into the cream.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity to one of the three cream portions.
Chocolate
Adds richness and flavor to one of the three cream portions.

The step that matters

Whip the cream until stiff. Under-whipped cream stays loose and won't hold its shape or set firm in the mold. Over-whipping can turn it grainy and buttery, so stop once it holds stiff peaks.

“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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