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Dessert

Grape and Fig Pudding

A sweet pudding made with grapes, figs, walnuts, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and grape match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 323 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Grape and Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Chop figs very fine and halve and seed the grapes.

  2. In a pot, bring water, sugar, figs, grapes, and chopped walnut meats to a boil.

  3. Blend cornstarch in a little cold water and add it to the pot, stirring constantly.

  4. Remove from heat and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold and chill.

  2. Serve with 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. Fig + grapetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Fig + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Grape + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Thickens the fruit syrup so the pudding holds its shape when chilled.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they lighten the pudding and add airy structure.
Figs
Provide body, sweetness and a soft, jammy texture to the pudding.
White grapes
Add juiciness and mild sweetness, and release liquid that flavors the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the cooking liquid and balances the tartness of the fruit.

The step that matters

Blend cornstarch in cold water before adding it to the pot. Cornstarch added directly to hot liquid clumps and thickens unevenly. Dissolving it in cold water first lets it disperse, and constant stirring keeps the starch smooth as it thickens.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Datesfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, walnut, meat, 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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