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Dessert

Prune Pudding

A baked pudding made with prunes, oatmeal, milk, sugar, cinnamon, salt, eggs, and crushed rusk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Prune Pudding

Why it works: Milk and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,655 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Prune Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the prunes and oatmeal

  1. Wash the prunes.

  2. Place the prunes in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover.

  3. Cook the prunes until soft, about 15 minutes before done.

  4. Add 3 tablespoons of sugar to the prunes.

  5. Pick and wash the oatmeal groats.

  6. In a separate saucepan, combine the oatmeal groats with ½ pint of cold water.

  7. Cook the oatmeal in a boiling water bath for 45 minutes.

Make the custard

  1. In another saucepan, heat the milk, remaining sugar, cinnamon, and salt.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with a spoonful of cold milk.

  3. Stir the beaten yolks into the warm milk until it thickens, but do not boil.

  4. Stir in the cooked oatmeal, rusk, and prunes.

  5. Remove the mixture from heat.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites with 2 tablespoons of sugar until stiff.

  2. Gently fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture.

  3. Serve warm, without sauce.

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. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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 sweetness, body and fruity flavor as they soften in the pudding.
Oatmeal groats
Thicken the pudding and give it a hearty, starchy texture as they cook.
Eggs
Thicken the custard when yolks are cooked, and whites are folded in for a light, airy texture.
Milk
Forms the custard base, providing richness and moisture that the eggs set into.
Rusk
Adds dry crumb that helps absorb moisture and firm up the pudding's texture.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten yolks into the warm milk without boiling. Egg yolks thicken gently as their proteins set; if the custard boils, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture.

“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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