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Dessert

Frozen Pudding

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

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

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the gelatin in enough water to cover it for 2 hours.

  2. Boil the milk.

  3. In a bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, and flour.

  4. Pour the boiling milk over the egg mixture and add the soaked gelatin.

  5. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until it thickens, but do not let it boil.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cooled, stir in the cream, candied cherries, and sherry.

  2. Freeze the mixture until solid.

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. Gelatin + sugartop 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

Gelatin
Sets the custard so the frozen pudding holds its shape and stays smooth.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness and structure.
Flour
Thickens the custard base, helping it stay smooth and not runny.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture that resists icy crystals.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and softens the texture of the frozen dessert.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the other ingredients thicken.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in a double boiler. Gentle heat lets the eggs and flour thicken the custard smoothly. If it boils, the eggs can scramble and the custard can turn grainy or lumpy.

“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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