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
Soak the prunes overnight.
In the morning, remove the stones and chop the prunes finely.
Add the sugar to the prunes, stir well, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
Make the whip
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gently stir the prunes into the beaten egg whites.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and bake until nicely browned.
Serve
Serve with whipped cream or custard.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 flavour and body, and their sweetness deepens as they cook with sugar.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to foam, they give the whip its light, airy structure and lift.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the prunes and helps them cook into a thick, spreadable purée.
The step that matters
Gently stir the prunes into the beaten egg whites. Folding rather than beating keeps the air bubbles in the stiff egg white foam. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, so the whip bakes flat and dense instead of light.
“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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