Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Prune Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Stew the prunes until soft, then remove the stones.
Add sugar to taste.
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Mix the prunes and beaten egg whites until thoroughly combined.
Assemble and bake
Prepare a puff pastry crust in a pudding dish.
Spread the prune mixture on the crust.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until the crust is done.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Prunes
- Provide the main body, moisture and fruity sweetness of the filling.
- Egg whites
- Beaten until stiff, they trap air and give the pudding a light, set structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the cooked prunes.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the crust, whose layered fat and starch bake up crisp and flaky.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites only hold air when beaten enough. Under-beaten whites collapse when mixed into the prunes, so the pudding loses lightness and sets denser.
“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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