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Dessert

Prune Pudding

A baked pudding made from soaked prunes, vanilla, powdered sugar, egg whites, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Prune Pudding

Why it works: Vanilla and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Prune Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the prunes

  1. Soak the prunes in cold water for about 20 minutes.

  2. Put the soaked prunes on the stove and stew for 30 minutes.

  3. Press the prunes through a sieve.

Make and bake the pudding

  1. Add powdered sugar and vanilla to the prunes, then fold in the beaten egg whites. Mix well and pour into a baking dish.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 25 minutes.

Chill and serve

  1. Once cooled, refrigerate for several hours before serving.

  2. Whip the cream and serve it heaped on top of the pudding.

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.

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.

  1. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  3. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Prunes
Provide the main fruit body, sweetness and moisture that give the pudding its character.
Egg whites
Whipped into the pudding to add lightness and help it rise and set in the oven.
Cream
Whipped to form a light, rich topping that contrasts with the dense pudding.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the prune purée, adding sweetness to the mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten to stiff peaks and folded gently. Overmixing or deflating them makes the pudding dense rather than light after baking.

“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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