Why it works: Cream and sugar 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
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine the chopped prunes, salt, cream of tartar, and sugar.
Beat the egg whites until very stiff and gently fold them into the prune mixture.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a pudding dish and place it in a larger pan filled with water.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Serve warm with 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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to a stiff foam, they give the pudding its light, airy structure as they set in the oven.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites, helping the foam hold its shape during folding and baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilize the beaten egg white foam.
- Prunes
- Provide the main fruit flavor and moisture, and their sweetness balances the tartness of the pudding.
The step that matters
Folding the egg whites. Whites must be beaten until very stiff, then folded in gently. Overmixing deflates the foam, and the pudding loses the air that makes it rise and stay 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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