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 prunes
Wash and pick over the prunes.
Put prunes in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and soak for 2 hours.
Cook the prunes in the same water until soft, allowing the water to nearly evaporate.
Remove the stones and cut the prunes into small pieces, then sprinkle with sugar.
Make the pudding
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the prunes.
Pour the mixture into a lightly buttered pudding dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 minutes.
Serve
Chill and serve with custard sauce or sweetened whipped cream.
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 flavour and body, softening into the pudding's fruit base.
- Egg whites
- Beaten until stiff, they trap air and give the pudding its light, set structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the prunes and helps balance their tartness.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten to stiff peaks so they hold air; if they are under-beaten or deflated when the prunes are folded in, the pudding will be dense rather than light.
“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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