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Dessert

Prune Whip

A baked dessert made from mashed prunes, sugar, baking powder, egg whites, served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the mixture

  1. Cook the prunes until soft, then cool, seed, and mash them.

  2. Mix the mashed prunes with 1 cup of sugar.

  3. Add the baking powder and egg whites, then stir until combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  3. 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. 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

Prunes
Their pulp adds moisture, body, and sweet, fruity flavor to the dessert.
Egg whites
Their proteins set as the mixture bakes, giving the dessert structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the dessert rise in the oven.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the prune mixture moist.

The step that matters

Add the baking powder and egg whites, then stir until combined.. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet and heated, so the mixture should go into the oven promptly. Waiting too long lets the gas escape before baking, which reduces rise.

“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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