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Prune Pudding

A custard pudding made with stewed prunes, egg whites, milk, and orange peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Prune Pudding

Why it works: Milk and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,696 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Prune Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the prune pudding

  1. Stew the prunes well, then drain and remove the pits.

  2. Beat the prunes to a pulp and mix in sugar to taste.

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the prunes.

  4. Place the pudding pan in a larger pan of water and bake for a short time.

Make the custard

  1. For the custard, combine the egg yolks with the milk and cook until thickened.

  2. Flavor the custard with grated orange peel.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

English prunes
Provide the main body, sweetness and flavor of the pudding once beaten to a pulp.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the prune mixture and give the pudding its rise and airy structure.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, which thickens into a smooth, creamy sauce when cooked.
Sugar
Sweetens the prune pulp to taste.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff egg whites hold air only if they are folded in gently. Stirring or deflating them loses the foam, so the pudding bakes denser and less light.

Swap the orange

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

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

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