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Frozen Nesselrode Pudding

A chilled pudding made with chestnuts, sugar, mixed fruits, milk, cream, maraschino liqueur, egg yolks, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 911 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Frozen Nesselrode Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chestnuts, sugar, and mixed fruits.

  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, maraschino, egg yolks, and vanilla extract.

  3. Pour the milk mixture over the chestnut mixture and stir well.

  4. Chill the mixture in the freezer until firm, stirring occasionally.

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. Pineapple + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together911 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Chestnut + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together244 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Spanish chestnuts
Provide the main body and starchy, nutty texture of the pudding.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen mixture softer by lowering its freezing point.
Cream
Adds fat, giving the frozen pudding a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that freezes into a smooth, creamy set.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help emulsify the custard base for a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Stirring during freezing. Stirring while the mixture chills breaks up forming ice crystals, so the pudding freezes smooth rather than icy and grainy.

Swap the chestnut

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

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Chestnutthe original
  3. Macadamia nutfits about as well
  4. Pecansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pineapple, milk, cream, egg, vanilla. 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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