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Dessert

Midwinter Fruit Pudding

A baked fruit pudding made with dates, figs, walnuts, eggs, milk, and wine, served hot or cold with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Dates and fig work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Midwinter Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a 1½ pint mold and dredge it thickly with sugar.

  2. Line the mold with lady fingers, cutting them off even with the top.

Make and cook the pudding

  1. Mix the sliced dates, figs, and walnut meats, then fill the mold with this mixture.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs, then add sugar, wine or flavoring, and milk; mix well.

  3. Pour the egg mixture over the fruit in the mold.

  4. Place the mold in a dish of boiling water and cook until firm, about 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cold, turned out of the mold, and decorate with whipped cream and bits of nuts, dates, and figs.

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. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Fig + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Dates + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard so the pudding firms up when cooked.
Milk
Provides liquid that forms a custard with the eggs, adding moisture and softness.
Walnut meats
Add richness and a crunchy texture among the soft fruit.
Dates
Add natural sweetness and a soft, chewy texture.
Figs
Add sweetness and a soft, chewy texture to the fruit filling.
Lady fingers
Line the mold to give the pudding a sponge-cake edge and structure.

The step that matters

Cooking in a water bath until firm. Egg custard sets gently as its proteins coagulate. Cooking it in a dish of boiling water moderates the heat, so the pudding firms without curdling or becoming rubbery. Stop once it is just set.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, butter, sugar, walnut, meat, egg, wine):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Pearfits about as well
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, butter, sugar, walnut, meat, egg, wine. 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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