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Nesselrode pudding

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nesselrode pudding
An icecream bombe topped with fresh cherries and a sprig of holly. There is dried fruit visible in the pudding, which has been turned upside down onto a serving plate and sliced open.
Nesselrode pudding topped with fresh cherries and holly
TypeBombe glacée
CourseDessert
Created byChef Mony or Antonin Carême (disputed)
Main ingredientsChestnut puree, cream, dried fruit, alcohol
Similar dishesNesselrode pie, Nesselrode consomme, sweetbreads Nesselrode, venison steaks Nesselrode
  •   Media: Nesselrode pudding

Nesselrode pudding is a French chestnut-based frozen dessert invented in the first half of the 19th century and named after Russian diplomat Karl Nesselrode. The dish spawned a number of variations, including an American pie; other chestnut-flavored dishes also received Nesselrode's name, not only desserts but also savory dishes such as consommé and sweetbreads. In literature, the dessert is served at a dinner party in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, eliciting a positive reaction from a guest.

Origin

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Nesselrode pudding from the 1907 edition of Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton

The invention of Nesselrode pudding is disputed.[1][2] Several sources attribute the invention to Chef Mony (or Muny, Munie, Monni or Mouy), who is claimed to have made the pudding before 1840 while working for the Russian diplomat Karl Nesselrode. Author Patricia Bunning Stephens dates the invention by Mony to the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15.[3][page needed] According to Jane Grigson, Mony passed the recipe to Jules Gouffé, who published it in his 1867 book Livres de Cuisine and attributed it to Mony.[4][full citation needed][5] Author Ian Kelly also attributes the invention to Mony.[6][page needed]

However, cookbook writer Gail Monaghan attributes the creation of the pudding to Antonin Carême, chef to French diplomat Charles Talleyrand, also involved in Congress of Vienna.[7][full citation needed] Carême himself wrote in 1828 that his friend Mony derived the idea from a pudding recipe Carême had already published in an earlier edition of one of his cookbooks.[8]

Preparation and consumption

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Nesselrode pudding from The Boston Cooking School magazine, 1905

The dessert is generally agreed to contain pureed chestnuts, mixed with cream or egg custard, flavoured with dried fruit, including currants, raisins and dried cherries, candied peel and brandy or other spirits.[6][page needed] While it was generally presented as a frozen dessert, in some recipes it was set with gelatin instead.[9][10] An 1897 recipe published in The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by American writer Fannie Farmer was a pineapple–chestnut ice cream with candied fruit and raisins, served with maraschino syrup.[11] The Joy of Cooking, first published 1931, contained a recipe using gelatin-thickened whipped cream with crumbled macaroons, and omitted chestnuts entirely.[12][unreliable source?]

Variations

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Nesselrode pie

The dessert was popular in Victorian times. English writers Eliza Acton and Isabella Beeton published recipes for Nesselrode pudding, Nesselrode cream and iced Nesselrode.[13][1][14]

In the 1950s, the pudding was adapted into Nesselrode pie or Nesselrode chiffon pie, in America.[15] Some recipes for this pie omitted chestnuts (and chestnut flavouring) entirely, relying on cherries, rum and sherry for flavour.[16] Other dishes with the name Nesselrode include sweetbreads Nesselrode, venison steaks Nesselrode, and consommé Nesselrode, the common feature to all being that they are flavoured with chestnuts.[17][6][page needed][18][page needed]

In culture

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Nesselrode pudding is served at a dinner party in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. According to P Segal, it is "one of the few dishes served at Proust's interminable dinner parties in Remembrance to merit an exclamation of approval from a guest",[19] with that approval being: "Ah, what's this now? What, another Nesselrode pudding! After such a feast of Lucullus, it will behove me to take the waters at Karlsbad!"[20]

Novelist Susie Boyt, eating Nesselrode pudding for the first time in 2016, reported that "it tasted of Christmas, without any of the disappointment".[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Nesselrode Pudding". British Food: A History. 17 December 2025. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  2. ^ Felicity Cloake (14 December 2025). "How to make nesselrode pudding – recipe". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
  3. ^ Stevens, Patricia Bunning (1998). Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes. Ohio University Press. ISBN 9780965447713.
  4. ^ Grigson, Jane (1979). Food with the Famous. London: Michael Joseph.
  5. ^ Gouffé, Jules (1867). Le livre de cuisine : comprenant la cuisine de ménage et la grande cuisine / par Jules Gouffé ; pl... dessinées... par E. Ronjat. Hachette. p. 750 – via Bibliothèque nationale de France. (translated) I owe the recipes for the Marquise pudding and the Nesselrode pudding to one of my good old friends and honorable colleague, Mr. Mony, former chef of the Count of Nesselrode, who is cited among our most distinguished practitioners. I can therefore, as for the Châteaubriant and the Sicilienne, guarantee the complete authenticity of these two recipes, since I got them directly from the authors, to whom I am happy to offer here my testimony of gratitude and good fellowship.
  6. ^ a b c Kelly, Ian (2004). Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, the First Celebrity Chef. New York: Walker & Company.
  7. ^ Monaghan, Gail (2007). Lost desserts: delicious indulgences of the past: recipes from legendary restaurants and famous chefs.
  8. ^ Carême, M. A. (Marie Antonin) (1828). Le cuisinier parisien, ou l'art de la cuisine française au 19e siècle [The art of French cuisine in the 19th century]. Paris: Didot. p. 398. (translated) Mr. Monni, a Parisian and distinguished cook, has lived in the capital of the North for ten or twelve years. I am quite convinced that the chestnut pudding that I composed and described in the first edition of this work gave him the idea for this frozen pudding, to which he gave the name of the Russian lord (à la Nesselrode), whose dinner he prepares every day.
  9. ^ Galletly, Duncan. "Nesselrode Pudding" (PDF). aristologist.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  10. ^ "Woman's World". Evening Star. 11 February 1911. p. 4. Retrieved 4 February 2025 – via Papers Past.
  11. ^ Farmer, Fannie (1896). The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. Little, Brown & Company. p. 379.
  12. ^ Rombauer, Irma; Rombauer, Marion (1931). The Joy of Cooking (First ed.). Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
  13. ^ "Nesselrode pudding recipe". Pies, Puddings and Pottages. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
  14. ^ Beeton, Mrs (Isabella Mary) (1861). The Book of Household Management. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
  15. ^ DeRuiter, Geraldine; Hadeed, Becky (19 June 2024). "Nesselrode Pie Recipe (Vintage New York Dessert)". The Storied Recipe. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  16. ^ Knox On Camera Recipes: A completely new guide to Gel-Cookery. Montreal: Knox-Gelatin Canada. 1962. p. 35.
  17. ^ Perry, Charles (5 August 1998). "Twilight descends on Nesselrode cream". Times Colonist – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Smith, Henry (1902). The master book of soups, featuring 1,001 titles and recipes. London: Spring.
  19. ^ Segal (Roberta Pizzimenti), P (December 1994). "The Superlative Nesselrode". Proust Said That (2): 14–15 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ^ Proust, Marcel (2002). In search of lost time. Internet Archive. London: Allen Lane. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-14-091000-1.
  21. ^ Boyt, Susie (4 March 2016). "Nesselrode pudding". Financial Times.
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