Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the pudding
Beat the egg whites until light.
Fold in the sugar and chopped prunes.
Mix well and pour into a baking dish.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Finish and serve
Make a custard with the egg yolks in a separate saucepan.
Pour the custard over the pudding and serve cold.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg whites
- Beaten until light, they trap air that gives the pudding its lift and light texture.
- Prunes
- Provide the main fruit flavour, sweetness and moisture in the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.
- Egg yolks
- Make the custard that is poured over the baked pudding, adding richness and body.
The step that matters
Fold in the sugar and chopped prunes. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps the air trapped in the beaten egg whites. Overmixing deflates the foam, so the pudding bakes up denser and less light.
“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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