Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Prune Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Stew the prunes until soft, then cool and remove the stones.
Chop the prunes and nuts finely, then combine them in a dish with sugar and beaten egg whites.
Whip the cream, add flavoring, and spread it on top of the mixture.
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix flour with a little cold milk to form a smooth paste.
Add the beaten eggs, a pinch of salt, and enough milk to make a thick batter.
Wash the prunes, simmer them in a little water until soft, then drain and remove the stones.
Sprinkle a little flour over the prunes and stir them into the batter.
Boil and serve
Pour the mixture into a cloth, tie it securely, leaving room for expansion.
Plunge the cloth into boiling water and boil until the pudding is cooked through.
Serve with sweet 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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Prunes
- Add sweetness, moisture and a soft, dense body to the pudding.
- Walnuts or almonds
- Add texture and a bit of nutty richness to the mixture.
- Egg whites
- Help bind the mixture and give it a light, set structure when cooked.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the tartness of the prunes.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter and gives the pudding its firm, cohesive structure.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour to form a smooth batter that cooks into a moist pudding.
The step that matters
Tying the cloth with room for expansion. The batter swells and sets as it cooks in boiling water, so leaving space in the cloth lets it expand. A cloth tied too tightly can restrict this and split or cook unevenly.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, cream, flour, milk):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream, flour, milk. 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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