Why it works: Sugar and egg 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
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the prunes
Soak prunes in water overnight.
Cook prunes in the soaking water until soft, then drain.
Remove stones and press prunes through a puree sieve.
Make and bake the soufflé
Mix in granulated sugar and beaten egg whites until well combined.
Bake in a pudding dish at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
Serve
Serve cold in the baking dish with cream.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 fruit flavour and a thick, puréed body that gives the soufflé its base.
- Egg whites
- Trap air when beaten, giving the soufflé its light, risen structure as it bakes and sets.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold the air that makes a soufflé rise. Mixing too vigorously knocks that air out, so the mixture should be combined gently until just well blended.
“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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