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 Whip
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the prunes
Stew the prunes without sugar until soft.
Make the mixture
Chop the prunes and mix with sugar, cream of tartar, and beaten egg whites.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and place it in a water bath in the oven.
Bake until set and serve with plain or whipped cream, or a custard made from the egg yolks.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and egg 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
- Prunes
- Provide the main fruit flavour and body, sweetened by the sugar added after stewing.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam to give the whip its light, airy structure as it sets.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dish and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the egg whites, helping them whip to a stable, stronger foam.
The step that matters
Bake until set in a water bath. Egg white foam sets gently with heat, and a water bath keeps the edges from overcooking and drying out before the centre is firm. Pulling it from the oven too early leaves it runny, while overbaking makes it weep and toughen.
“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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