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Angel Pudding

A walnut and date pudding baked with powdered sugar and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Angel Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Chop the walnuts and dates coarsely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped nuts, dates, powdered sugar, and egg whites. Mix in the baking powder.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with plenty of whipped cream.

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.

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. Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Dates + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together985 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Dates + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Walnut + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,037 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

English walnuts
Add crunch and body, giving the pudding a firm, chewy texture against the soft fruit.
Dates
Add sweetness and moisture, and a chewy texture that holds the pudding together.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the egg whites for a fine, even texture.
Egg whites
Provide structure and binding, setting as they bake to hold the nuts and dates together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the mixture rise and turn light rather than dense.

The step that matters

Baking the pudding. As the egg whites heat, they set into a light, sponge-like structure. Underbaking leaves the centre wet and loose, while overbaking dries it out, so check it within the stated time.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (dates, sugar, egg):

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against dates, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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