Skip to main content
Dessert

Prune Pudding

A chilled pudding made from stewed prunes, sugar, egg whites, and gelatin, served with almond‑flavored milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Prune Pudding

Why it works: Milk and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Prune Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the prunes

  1. Soak prunes overnight in enough water to cover them.

  2. In the morning, remove the stones and stew the prunes in the soaking water until soft.

  3. Add sugar to the prunes and stir until dissolved, then remove from heat and strain through a colander.

  4. You should have about 1 pint of pulp and juice.

Make the pudding

  1. Beat the egg whites and fold them into the prune pulp.

  2. Soak the gelatine in 1 cup of cold water for 1 hour, then add boiling water to dissolve it.

  3. When lukewarm, mix the gelatine into the prune and egg mixture.

  4. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. Serve with sweetened milk flavored with almond.

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 + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 body, sweetness and dark fruity flavor of the pudding.
Eggs
Whites beaten and folded in add lightness and an airy, soft texture.
Gelatine
Sets the pulp into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cools.
Sugar
Sweetens the stewed prunes and balances their tartness.

The step that matters

Mixing the gelatine in while lukewarm. If the gelatine is too hot, it can deflate the beaten egg whites and thin the mixture; if it is too cold, it sets in lumps. Lukewarm gelatine blends evenly and keeps the foam intact.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Cocoafits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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.

More prune pudding recipes

Norwegian 7Steamed 5 See all 210 →

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes