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Dessert

Prunes, Stewed

A baked dessert of stewed prunes mixed with eggs, sugar, flour, almonds, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Prunes, Stewed

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Chop the prunes into small pieces.

  3. In a bowl, cream the egg yolks and sugar together.

Make the batter

  1. Stir in the flour, half of the prepared almonds, lemon juice, and prunes; mix well.

  2. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold half into the mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered souffle dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 15 minutes.

  2. Top with remaining egg whites, sprinkle with caster sugar, and scatter on the almonds.

  3. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes until golden.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg whites
Whisked to stiff peaks, they trap air and lift the dish into a light, airy texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the batter and help bind it, adding richness and a tender set.
Prunes
Provide moisture and a deep, sweet-tart fruit flavour throughout the batter.
Flour
Gives the batter body so it holds its shape while baking.
Prepared almonds
Add nutty flavour and a crisp, browned topping as the dish bakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that makes the dish rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the whites makes the result dense and flat.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, almond, butter. 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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