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Dessert

Prune Souffle

A baked dessert of stewed prunes folded into a stiff egg white foam and sweetened with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Prune Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Stew the prunes and chop them finely.

Make the soufflé

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Stir in the powdered sugar.

  3. Gently fold in the chopped prunes.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Prunes
Provide the main flavour and body, sweetening and giving the soufflé its dark, rich character.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff foam, they trap air and give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Powdered sugar
Stabilises the whipped egg whites and adds sweetness while dissolving easily into the foam.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the chopped prunes. Folding preserves the air whipped into the egg whites. Stirring or deflating the foam makes the soufflé heavy and stop rising 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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