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Ice or Frozen Pudding

A custard-based frozen pudding flavored with brandy and preserved fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ice or Frozen Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine cream, milk, egg yolks, pounded almonds, and sugar.

  2. Heat gently, stirring until it thickens to a custard consistency.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

  4. Once cool, stir in brandy.

Freeze and serve

  1. Pour mixture into a freezer and freeze until partially congealed.

  2. Cut preserved fruit into small pieces and mix with currants.

  3. Add fruit mixture to the partially frozen pudding and stir well.

  4. Continue freezing until fully set, then serve like ice cream.

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. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

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

  4. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 as they set on gentle heat and add richness.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the frozen pudding a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and softens the texture of the frozen pudding.
Preserved fruit
Adds concentrated fruit flavour and chewy pieces throughout the frozen pudding.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour, and alcohol keeps the frozen pudding softer.

The step that matters

Heat gently while stirring the custard. Egg yolks scramble if heated too fast or left unstirred, leaving lumps. Gentle, constant stirring lets the custard thicken smoothly before it cools and freezes.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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