Why it works: Port wine and sugar work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 805 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Another Prune Loaf
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Stone the prunes.
Blanch the kernels.
Cook
Boil the kernels with the prunes, a little water, port wine, dissolved isinglass, and brown sugar.
Set and serve
Pour the mixture into a mold.
Once cold, turn it out.
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.
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Port wine + sugartop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together805 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 body and natural sweetness of the loaf.
- Isinglass
- Sets the cooked mixture into a firm loaf as it cools.
- Port wine
- Adds depth of flavour and fruity aroma.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a richer, caramel-like flavour.
“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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