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Dessert

Fruit Pudding

A sweet loaf made from glucose, sugar, raisins, mincemeat, nuts, pineapple, cherries, citron, and coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 651 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine 5 pounds of glucose, 3 pounds of sugar, and enough water to dissolve the mixture in a large pot. Stir the mixture.

  2. Cook until the temperature reaches 252°F (122°C). Remove from heat.

  3. Add 2 pounds of mixed shelled nuts, 1 pound of pineapple, cherries, citron, and as much powdered coconut as you can mix in.

  4. Pour the mixture onto a slab. Shape it into a loaf.

Make the coating

  1. Combine 3 pounds of glucose, 1 pound of sugar, and a little water in a clean kettle. Cook to 252°F (122°C). Remove from heat.

  2. Add all the coconut it will hold. Pour this mixture onto the slab.

  3. Flatten it thin with a rolling pin. Fold it around the loaf until completely covered.

  4. Wait until the mixture is cold. Cut into slices like cake.

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 + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together651 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Nuts + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + coconuttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Glucose
Provides sweetness and a syrup base that stays soft and resists crystallising.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, cooked to temperature, helps the mixture set firm when cooled.
Mixed shelled nuts
Add crunch and body to the loaf's interior.
Powdered coconut
Absorbs syrup and adds texture and flavour to the loaf and its coating.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 252°F (122°C). Cooking the glucose and sugar syrup to this exact temperature controls how much water remains. Too little cooking leaves the candy soft and sticky, while too much makes it hard and brittle once cold.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, pineapple, coconut):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Brazil nutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, pineapple, coconut. 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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