Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Prune Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the prunes
Stew the prunes and drain off the juice.
Remove the stones and chop the prunes.
Make and bake the pudding
Beat the egg whites until very stiff.
Gradually add the sugar while continuing to beat.
Fold in the chopped prunes.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.
Serve
Serve cold with flavored whipped cream.
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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Stewed prunes
- Provide the main fruit flavor, sweetness and moisture to the pudding.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that traps air, giving the pudding its light structure and rise.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until very stiff. Stiff, well-beaten whites trap air that lifts the pudding as it bakes. Underbeaten whites give a dense result, while overbeaten whites turn grainy and collapse. Adding sugar gradually helps keep the foam stable.
“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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