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Dessert

Prune Souffle

A baked dessert of prunes folded into stiffened egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the prune pulp

  1. Prepare prunes using a double boiler until tender.

  2. Press the pulp through a sieve.

  3. Add sugar to the pulp.

  4. Cook for 5 minutes.

  5. Cool, then add lemon juice.

Fold and bake

  1. Beat egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gradually beat in the prune mixture.

  3. Pile the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  4. Oven-poach in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

  5. Test with a knitting needle.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cold with cream or 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.

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. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 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
Form the soft pulp that gives the souffle its body, sweetness and fruity flavor.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the souffle its light, airy structure as it sets.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the prune flavor and helps stabilize the egg white foam.

The step that matters

Gradually beat in the prune mixture.. Egg white foam is fragile. Adding the pulp gradually and mixing gently keeps air trapped in the foam, which is what lifts the souffle as it bakes. Overmixing or adding warm pulp can deflate it.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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