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Dessert

Prune Souffle

A baked dessert made from stewed prunes folded into stiffened egg whites and sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Prune Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the prunes

  1. Soak the prunes until soft.

  2. Stew the soaked prunes until tender.

  3. Pass the stewed prunes through a sieve.

Make the soufflé

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Mix the beaten egg whites with the sugar.

  3. Combine the prunes and egg mixture thoroughly.

  4. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered pan.

  5. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately 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.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. 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 fruit flavour and moisture, becoming the base of the soufflé.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they trap air and give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Fine sugar
Sweetens the dish and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Under-beaten whites won't hold enough air to lift the soufflé, and over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and collapse when folded. Stiff, glossy peaks give the best 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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