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 ↓
Gateau De Prunes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dissolve the gelatine in ½ cup of water.
Stone the prunes and stew them in the remaining water until tender.
Set and serve
Add some of the prunes' kernels, sugar, lemon juice, and dissolved gelatine.
Pour the mixture into an oiled mold to set.
Serve with whipped cream and pour custard around it.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable body as it cools.
- Prunes
- Provide the main flavour and body of the dessert as they soften into the mixture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the prunes and lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet prune flavour.
The step that matters
Dissolving the gelatine. Gelatine must dissolve fully in warm liquid before it is added; undissolved granules leave gritty specks and uneven setting. Gelatine also sets firmly only once the mixture is cooled, so the mold needs time to chill.
“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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