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Dessert

Salzburger Nockerl

A light, sweet Austrian soufflé made from whipped egg whites, yolks, sugar, flour, and lemon zest.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Salzburger Nockerl

Serves 4
Oven200°C (~400°F)
Time10 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 200°C (~400°F).

  2. Butter two oven-proof dishes (you may now line the bottom of the dish with jam or custard if desired).

Make the batter

  1. Whip the egg whites, gradually adding the sugar, until they are very stiff.

  2. Quickly beat in the 2 yolks, zest, and vanilla sugar without beating too hard.

  3. Carefully fold in the flour.

Shape and bake

  1. Heap three large dollops of the egg mass into the dish, sitting alongside each other, slightly offset, and mount them to resemble three little mountains.

  2. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until your Nockerl have become slightly brown on top.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

606Calories
20 gProtein
7 gFat
112 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Vanilla + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the Nockerl their airy, lofty structure.
Caster sugar
Stabilizes the whipped egg whites and adds sweetness.
Egg yolks
Add richness and a tender, custardy texture to the batter.
Flour
Lightly sets during baking to give the Nockerl enough body to hold their shape.
Lemon zest
Adds a bright citrus aroma that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites and folding in the flour. Stiff whites trap air that makes the Nockerl rise. Overbeating the yolks or stirring the flour in roughly knocks that air out, and the dish bakes up dense and flat.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, vanilla, flour, sauce. 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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