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Dessert

Prune Pudding

A baked pudding made with prunes, milk, flour, eggs, and flour for dredging, served with wine sauce or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Prune Pudding

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Prune Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the prunes

  1. Scald the prunes in hot water until soft, then drain and remove the stones.

  2. Spread the prunes on a dish and dredge with flour.

Make the batter

  1. Take ½ cup of milk from a quart and gradually stir in 8 tablespoons of sifted flour.

  2. Beat the eggs until very light.

  3. Stir the beaten eggs into the remaining milk, alternating with the batter.

  4. Add the prunes one at a time.

  5. Stir the mixture vigorously.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for 2 hours.

  2. Serve with wine sauce or 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.

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.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Milk and flour 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs add structure and lightness, helping the pudding set and rise as it cooks.
Flour
Flour thickens the batter and gives the pudding its body so the prunes stay suspended.
Prunes
Softened prunes provide the main sweetness, moisture and fruity flavour of the pudding.
Milk
Milk loosens the flour into a batter and adds moisture and richness.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten eggs into the milk, alternating with the batter. Adding the eggs gradually, alternating with the batter, keeps the mixture smooth and stops the eggs from curdling or clumping, so the pudding sets evenly.

“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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