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Dessert

Steamed Prune Pudding

A steamed pudding made with prune pulp, sugar, milk, flour, baking powder, eggs, salt, bread crumbs, suet or butter, served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steamed Prune Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Add 1/2 cup sugar.

  2. Beat 2 eggs lightly.

  3. Add 1 1/2 cup prune pulp.

  4. Add 1/2 cup milk.

  5. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt.

  6. Add 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs.

  7. Add 1/2 cup flour.

  8. Add 1 teaspoon baking powder.

  9. Add 1 1/2 cup finely chopped suet or 1/2 cup melted butter.

  10. Mix altogether thoroughly.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam in a mould for two and a half hours.

  2. Serve with a hard or creamy sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

731Calories
27 gProtein
14 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

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 + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Flour
Provides the starch framework that gives the pudding its body.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and turn light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps tenderise the crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter mix into a smooth, pourable mixture.

The step that matters

Steam in a mould for two and a half hours. Gentle, steady steam cooks the pudding evenly and keeps it moist. If the water boils dry or the steam drops, the pudding can be heavy or dry at the edges. Steaming time is long, so the water level needs checking throughout.

“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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