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Dessert

Prune Pudding

A baked dessert made with stewed prunes, egg whites, sugar, vanilla, pecans, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Prune Pudding

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Prune Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the prune pudding base

  1. Rub the stewed prunes through a colander to produce 1 cup.

  2. Beat the egg whites until very light.

  3. Add 2 tablespoons sugar, the prune pulp, and vanilla to the egg whites and beat well.

  4. Pour the mixture into a 2-quart baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

Make the second pudding

  1. Wash and cover 14 prunes with cold water and cook until tender.

  2. Rub the cooked prunes through a colander and add the cooking syrup and pecans.

  3. Beat the egg whites with 3 teaspoons sugar until very light and fold in the prune mixture.

  4. Pour into a buttered pan set in a vessel of boiling water and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  5. Remove and let stand for 5 minutes before turning out.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with prune kernels or pecans and serve with whipped cream.

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.

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they trap air and give the pudding its light, risen structure.
Prunes
Their pulp adds moisture, body, and natural sweetness to the pudding.
Eggs
Set during baking to give the pudding a firm, sliceable structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.
Pecans
Add crunch and a toasted, nutty flavour to the soft pudding.

The step that matters

Folding the prune mixture into the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while they are whipped; folding gently keeps that air in, so the pudding rises and stays light instead of collapsing into a dense layer.

“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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