Why it works: Sugar and egg 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 the prune base
Stew the prunes until very soft, then remove the stones and mash them finely.
Sweeten the mashed prunes to taste with powdered sugar.
Make the pudding
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the prunes.
Pour the mixture into a pudding dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes.
Serve
Serve hot or cold with whipped 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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Sugar + eggtop 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 flavour, body and natural sweetness once stewed and mashed.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiffness, they lighten the mixture and give the pudding its airy structure as it bakes.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the mashed prunes and dissolves easily into the smooth base.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites hold air only when beaten to firm peaks. Under-beaten whites collapse when folded in, leaving a dense pudding, while over-beaten whites turn grainy and split, so they should stand upright but still look smooth and moist.
“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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