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Dessert

Prune Souffle

A baked dessert of beaten egg whites, prunes, pecans, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and pecans are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,280 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Prune Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the prunes

  1. Boil prunes in sugar-water until soft.

Make the souffle

  1. Beat egg whites until very light.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar while continuing to beat.

  3. Fold in chopped prunes and finely chopped pecans.

  4. Pour mixture into a deep, ungreased pan.

  5. Bake at 300°F (150°C) until set.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with sweetened 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.

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. Egg + pecanstop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,280 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  3. Pecans + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,962 recipes

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

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 that lifts the souffle as it bakes and sets.
Powdered sugar
Added to the whipped whites, it sweetens the souffle and helps stabilize the foam.
Prunes
Soft, sweet fruit that adds moisture and flavor throughout the souffle.
Pecans
Finely chopped nuts that add crunch and a toasty, rich flavor.

The step that matters

Fold in the prunes and pecans gently. Folding keeps the air bubbles in the beaten egg whites intact. Stirring or deflating the foam heavily will make the souffle dense and flat after baking.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Pecansthe original
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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