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Prune Pudding

A pudding made from prunes, sugar, water, lemon juice, almond extract, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Prune Pudding

Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Prune Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the prunes

  1. Wash the prunes and soak them overnight.

  2. Simmer the prunes until tender, then remove the pits.

  3. Add enough water to the liquid to make 2 cups.

Make the pudding

  1. Mix the cornstarch with the sugar.

  2. Add the mixture to the prunes.

  3. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

  4. Add the lemon juice and almond extract.

Mold and serve

  1. Dip a mold in cold water.

  2. Drain the mold.

  3. Fill the mold with the pudding.

  4. Set the filled mold aside to cool.

  5. Serve cold with whipped 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. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar 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 fruit flavor and body, softening into a thick, sweet base.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cooking liquid into a set, sliceable pudding as it cools.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the tartness of the prunes and lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the sweet prune mixture.

The step that matters

Cook for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Cornstarch must be heated while stirred so it gelatinizes evenly and thickens without lumps or scorching on the bottom of the pan. Stopping early leaves the pudding thin and unset.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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

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