Why it works: Egg and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,347 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Prune Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the prune base
Stew the prunes until very soft.
Pass the prunes through a colander.
Sweeten and flavor the prunes with vanilla.
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Fold the stiff egg whites into the prunes.
Bake and finish
Place the mixture in a dish.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until it doesn't stick to a straw.
Make a custard with the egg yolks.
Pour the custard over the baked prunes.
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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Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together27,347 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Egg and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 27,347 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 body, sweetness and fruity flavor of the pudding.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the mixture and help it rise and set.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard poured over the baked pudding, adding richness.
The step that matters
Folding the stiff egg whites into the prunes. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites; stirring vigorously deflates them, so the pudding bakes up less light and airy.
“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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