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Dessert

Prune Brown Betty

A baked dessert of layered prunes, bread crumbs, butter, brown sugar, milk, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Prune Brown Betty

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Grease a baking dish and sprinkle it thickly with bread crumbs.

  2. Layer pitted prunes that have soaked overnight in warm water.

  3. Add a little brown sugar, butter, and spices.

  4. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with bread crumbs on top.

Bake

  1. Pour hot milk over the layers and dot with butter.

  2. Set aside for an hour, then bake at 400°F (200°C) until the top is crisp and brown.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Wheat + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together537 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole wheat bread crumbs
Form the soft layers and a crisp, browned top crust.
Prunes
Provide the main fruit body and sweetness as they soften during baking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and caramel notes as it melts into the layers and browns.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top crust brown as it melts.
Hot milk
Moistens the crumbs so they soften and the layers bake through.

The step that matters

Set aside for an hour before baking. The hot milk needs time to soak into the bread crumbs so they swell and soften. Baking straight away can leave dry pockets and an uneven 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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