Why it works: Egg and sugar 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
Prepare the prunes
Inspect the prunes and discard any poor ones.
Wash the prunes thoroughly in hot water, then cover with lukewarm water and soak overnight.
In the morning, simmer the soaked prunes in the same water for 3 to 4 hours until very tender.
Drain the prunes, remove the stones, and chop them.
Make the pudding
Beat the egg whites until stiff, gradually adding the sugar while beating.
Stir in the chopped prunes and bake for 20 minutes.
Serve cold with cream sauce or almond 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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Egg + sugartop 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 fruit body, sweetness and moisture once softened and chopped.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam, they give the pudding its light, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Whites must be beaten to a stiff foam with sugar added gradually so the air bubbles hold. Under-beaten or deflated whites make the pudding 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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