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Dessert

Prune Whip

A dessert made from prunes, eggs, sugar, and lemon juice, whipped into a light, custard‑like consistency.

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 lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Prune Whip

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the prunes

  1. Pick over the prunes and wash them.

  2. Soak the prunes overnight or for several hours in cold water to cover.

  3. Cook the prunes in the same water.

  4. Steam the prunes in a strainer over hot water until soft.

  5. Drain off any excess moisture.

  6. Remove the stones.

  7. Rub the prunes through a strainer.

Make the whip

  1. Add the sugar to the prune pulp.

  2. Cool the mixture.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  4. Gradually add the prune pulp while continuing to beat.

  5. Add the lemon juice and mix until combined.

Serve

  1. Pile the mixture lightly on a serving dish.

  2. Serve with custard sauce.

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 + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 flavour and bulk, with pulp that gives the whip its body and sweetness.
Eggs
Whites beaten to stiff foam give the whip its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the prune pulp and helps stabilise the beaten foam.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet prune flavour and helps stabilise the egg white foam.

The step that matters

Gradually add the prune pulp while continuing to beat. Adding pulp slowly while beating keeps the egg white foam from collapsing. Dumping it in at once deflates the air that gives the whip its lightness.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits 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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