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Dessert

Prune Mould

A gelatinous dessert made from prunes, sugar, lemon, and optional brandy or cochineal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Prune Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the prunes

  1. Split the prunes and remove the stones.

  2. Combine prunes, water, sugar, lemon rind, and lemon juice in a saucepan.

  3. Simmer for about 20 minutes until tender.

Set the mixture

  1. Melt the gelatine in ½ cup of water.

  2. Strain the melted gelatine into the saucepan.

  3. Add the brandy.

  4. Brighten the mixture with cochineal if desired.

  5. Pour the mixture into little moulds rinsed with cold water or one large mould.

Turn out

  1. Once firm, dip the moulds in warm water.

  2. Turn out the moulds.

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.

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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Sugar and lemon 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 flavour, sweetness and body of the set mould.
Gelatine
Sets the cooked fruit liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Sugar
Sweetens the prunes and balances the tartness of the lemon.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright aroma that lift the rich, sweet prune flavour.

The step that matters

Once firm, dip the moulds in warm water. Gelatine sets as the liquid cools, so the mould must be fully firm first. A brief dip in warm water slightly melts the outer layer, loosening it from the mould so it releases without tearing or collapsing.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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