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Prune Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, eggs, butter, nutmeg, and stewed prunes, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Prune Pudding

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Prune Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat sweet milk to boiling point.

  2. Gradually stir in cold milk mixed with cornstarch.

  3. Sweeten to taste, then add beaten eggs, butter, and nutmeg.

  4. Bring mixture to a boil.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a buttered pudding dish and add stewed prunes.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes.

  3. Serve with sauce.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding body and structure.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk so the custard becomes creamy rather than watery.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it richness and body.
Stewed prunes
Add sweetness, moisture and a deep fruity flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Bring mixture to a boil. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil to fully thicken the custard. Stopping early leaves it thin, while overcooking can scramble the beaten eggs and make the texture grainy.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter. 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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