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
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
Cook the prunes until soft, then sift them through a colander.
Make the pudding
Add the beaten egg whites and powdered sugar to the prunes.
Bake and serve
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes.
Serve hot with cream or a butter sauce.
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
- French prunes
- Provide the main body, moisture and sweet, rich prune flavour of the pudding.
- Egg whites
- Set during baking to give the pudding its light, airy structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and dissolves easily into the smooth prune mixture.
The step that matters
Adding the beaten egg whites. Beaten egg whites hold air that makes the pudding rise and become light. Mixing them in too vigorously knocks out that air, so the pudding bakes up dense and flat.
“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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