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Dessert

Imitation Souffle, Iced a LA Walter Scott

A chilled souffle made with syrup, egg yolks, curaçao, orange flower water, orange juice, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Imitation Souffle, Iced a LA Walter Scott

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare a soufflé case and place it in the ice cave.

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, gently incorporate the whipped cream with the syrup and egg yolks.

  2. Add the curaçao, orange flower water, and orange juice, mixing lightly.

  3. Pour the mixture into the soufflé case, ensuring it rises 1.5 inches above the edge.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, cover the surface with powdered brown baked savoy biscuits.

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. Syrup + creamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Syrup + orangetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,179 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Orange + creamtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Egg + orangetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Egg yolks
Add richness and help the mixture set smooth and creamy when frozen.
Double cream
Whipped, it traps air and gives the frozen soufflé a light, airy texture.
Syrup
Sugar in the syrup keeps the frozen mixture soft and scoopable rather than rock hard.
Orange juice
Adds acidity and fresh citrus flavour that brightens the sweetness.

The step that matters

Gently incorporate the whipped cream. Whipped cream holds air that gives the soufflé its lift. Folding it in gently, rather than stirring hard, keeps that air from collapsing and leaving a dense, heavy result.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, egg, cream. 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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