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Dessert

Prune Whip

A dessert of stewed prunes mixed with whipped egg whites, served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Prune Whip

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

  1. Soak prunes well before cooking and pit them.

  2. Stew prunes with sugar until rich and the skins are soft.

  3. If skins are not soft, strain the prunes through a colander.

Make the whip

  1. Let the prunes cool, then whip the egg whites and stir them in.

Serve

  1. Serve with 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.

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.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 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

Prunes
Provide the main body, thick pulp, and fruity sweetness of the whip.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps sweeten the stewed prune pulp.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they trap air and lighten the texture of the whip.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and richness as a cool, creamy contrast when served.

The step that matters

Stirring in the whipped egg whites. Beaten egg whites hold air in a foam that makes the whip light. If the prunes are still warm or the whites are overmixed, the foam collapses and the dish turns dense.

“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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