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Dessert

Prune Souffle

A light, airy dessert made from whipped egg whites folded with chopped prunes and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Prune Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the soufflé

  1. Beat the egg whites until very light.

  2. Gradually add the sugar mixed with cream of tartar while continuing to whip.

  3. Chop the cooked prunes finely and fold them into the egg mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into an unbuttered pudding dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for about 20 minutes.

  2. Serve hot with whipped or plain 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.

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

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 soufflé its light, risen structure.
Sugar
Stabilises the whipped foam and adds sweetness to the finished soufflé.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the egg whites, helping the foam stay stable and resist collapsing.
Prunes
Add moisture, sweetness and a rich, fruity flavour to the soufflé.

The step that matters

Fold in the prunes gently. Folding preserves the air whipped into the egg whites. Stirring or deflating the foam makes the soufflé heavy and stops it rising well in the oven.

“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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