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Prune Pudding with Gelatine

A chilled prune pudding made with gelatine, sugar, cinnamon, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Prune Pudding with Gelatine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the prunes

  1. Wash prunes in several waters and soak overnight in water to barely cover.

  2. Cook prunes until soft in the same water.

  3. Cool the cooked prunes.

  4. Remove stones from the prunes.

  5. Cut the prunes into small pieces.

Make the pudding

  1. Add sugar and cinnamon, then enough cooking liquid to make one pint.

  2. Soak gelatine in ¼ cup cold water.

  3. Bring the fruit mixture to a boil.

  4. Add the softened gelatine to the mixture.

  5. Remove the mixture from heat.

  6. Pour the mixture into a wet mold.

  7. Set the mold in a cool place to harden.

Serve

  1. Unmold the pudding when ready.

  2. Serve with whipped, slightly sweetened cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cream + cinnamontop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,510 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Prunes
Provide the main fruit flavour and body, softening into the pudding's texture.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid fruit mixture into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cools.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the cooked prunes.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a light, cool contrast when served whipped on top.

The step that matters

Adding the softened gelatine. Gelatine must be fully softened in cold water first, then added to the hot mixture and stirred in well. Lumps or uneven dispersal leave weak or grainy spots, and setting depends on the gelatine dissolving evenly before the mixture cools.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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