Why it works: Port wine and wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 128 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Prune Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Stew prunes with port wine, water, and brown sugar until soft.
Break the stones and add the kernels to the fruit.
Spread the mixture over a sheet of puff pastry and wet the edges.
Cook and serve
Roll it into a bolster shape and tie it firmly in a buttered and floured cloth.
Boil for 2 to 3 hours.
Serve with sweet wine sauce.
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.
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Port wine + winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together128 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 body and sweetness, softening into a moist filling when stewed.
- Puff pastry
- Wraps the filling and gives a layered, tender casing around the fruit.
- Port wine
- Adds depth and aroma to the stewed fruit while helping soften the prunes.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a caramel note that complements the stewed prunes.
The step that matters
Tie the bolster firmly. A loose cloth lets water seep into the pastry and filling during the long boil, leaving the pudding soggy and possibly bursting it open.
“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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