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Dessert

Molded Prunes

Gelatin set prunes served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Molded Prunes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the prunes in water and sugar until soft.

  2. Remove the stones and crack the kernels.

Set the mold

  1. Add the lemon juice, rind, and dissolved gelatine to the prunes. Stir until thoroughly mixed.

  2. Pour into a mold and set in a cool place until ready to serve.

Serve

  1. To serve, turn the mold upside down and pour over whipped cream.

  2. Decorate with a few stuffed prunes.

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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Provide the main flavour and body of the dish once softened by boiling.
Gelatine
Sets the prune mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Sugar
Sweetens the prunes and balances their tartness.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweet prune flavour.

The step that matters

Dissolving and mixing the gelatine. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and evenly stirred through the warm prune liquid, otherwise it sets unevenly or leaves weak spots, and the mold may not hold its shape when turned out.

“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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