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 ↓
Beau Sucre Soufflé
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sugar base
Cook the sugar until it reaches the soft crack stage, where it can still be rolled between your fingers after dipping in cold water.
Mix the icing sugar with the egg white until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes, avoiding any acids or starches.
Combine and set
Combine the icing mixture with the cooked sugar off the heat in two additions.
Stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon until the foam subsides.
Pour the mixture into a lightly heated rectangular tin that is 10 centimeters high.
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.
-
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
- Sugar
- Provides the sweet structure of the dish once cooked to the soft crack stage.
- Egg white
- Traps air through whisking, giving the mixture its light, foamy body.
- Icing sugar
- Dissolves easily into the egg white, sweetening and stabilising the foam.
The step that matters
Combining the icing mixture with the cooked sugar off the heat in two additions. Adding the hot sugar gradually, away from direct heat, lets it blend into the foam without deflating it or cooking the egg white, which would ruin the airy texture.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.