Why it works: Dates and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 218 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Date Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Remove the seeds from the dates and break the dates into small pieces.
Chop the walnut meats.
Make the batter
Beat the egg yolks and mix them with the sugar.
Combine the baking powder with the flour, then sift the flour mixture over the dates and walnuts.
Mix all ingredients together and flavor the mixture with vanilla.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the mixture.
Pour the batter into a buttered pan.
Bake
Bake for 40 minutes.
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.
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Dates + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together218 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Dates + walnuttop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together302 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vanilla + walnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,730 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Egg whites beaten to stiff peaks lighten the batter and give it its rise and airy texture.
- Dates
- Provide sweetness and moisture, giving the pudding its soft, chewy body.
- Walnuts
- Add texture and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft dates.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps tenderize the egg yolk mixture.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together once baked.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise in the oven.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Beaten egg whites trap air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently with a spatula until just combined.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (dates, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Brazil nutfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against dates, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour. 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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