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 Souffle
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.
Prepare the prunes
Wash the prunes well and cook them in just enough water to cover until tender.
Remove the pits and chop the prunes finely.
Make the soufflé
Whip the egg whites until very stiff, then gradually add the sugar while beating constantly.
Fold in the chopped prunes gently.
Pour the mixture into a buttered pan and place the pan in a larger pan filled with hot water.
Bake and serve
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.
Serve with plain cream or whipped cream, adding the chopped nuts if desired.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cream + nutstop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together886 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Prunes
- Provide moisture, sweetness and body that flavour the soufflé.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to foam, they give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
- Granulated sugar
- Stabilises the whipped whites and adds sweetness to the soufflé.
The step that matters
Whipping the egg whites. Egg whites must be whipped until very stiff, and sugar added gradually, so they hold air. Under-whipped or deflated whites will not give the soufflé its rise, and folding too roughly knocks out the air.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Pecansfits better
- Filbertfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, cream. 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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