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Dessert

Apple Souffle

A baked apple custard with butter, sugar, eggs, bread crumbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Apple Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apple base

  1. Pare, core, and cut the seven tart, juicy apples finely.

  2. Place the apples in a double boiler over the fire without water and steam until tender.

  3. Stir in two tablespoonfuls of butter and one cup of sugar.

  4. Remove from the fire and transfer the mixture to a bowl to cool.

  5. When cold, beat in the yolks of four eggs, whipped very light, and a little grated lemon peel.

  6. Add alternately the whites of the eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, and a cup of stale bread crumbs. Beat hard for a few moments.

Bake and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a buttered pudding dish and bake in a moderate oven for about one hour.

  2. Cover the dish while baking until ten or fifteen minutes before it is done to prevent a hard crust and dryness.

  3. Serve warm in the dish in which it was baked.

Second method: apple soufflé

  1. Grate some good, tart cooking apples, enough to measure one quart.

  2. Beat a generous tablespoonful of butter and seven tablespoonfuls of sugar to a cream.

  3. Add to this four egg yolks beaten light, then the apples and the grated rind of a lemon, and lastly the whites of four eggs beaten to a stiff froth.

  4. Bake the mixture in puff pastry or without, as preferred.

  5. Serve cold.

Second method: apple custard

  1. Pare, core, and quarter half a dozen fine, large cooking apples, put them in a double boiler with the grated rind of half a large lemon, cook until tender, and press through a sieve; there must be three-quarters of a pint of the purée.

  2. Add an ounce and a half of granulated sugar and set it aside to cool.

  3. Beat three eggs very light and stir gradually into a pint of rich milk alternately with the apple purée, add a little cinnamon, pour it into a pudding dish and bake for about twenty minutes.

  4. Serve cold with a little cinnamon and sugar sifted over it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

902Calories
28 gProtein
32 gFat
126 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6

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

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites beaten to a stiff froth lift the mixture and give the soufflé its airy structure.
Apples (in the method)
Cooked and puréed, they supply moisture, body and tart fruit flavour.
Stale bread crumbs
They absorb liquid and give the mixture body so it holds together while baking.
Butter
Fat that enriches the mixture and softens its texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, setting into a soft custard with the eggs in the second version.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and helps the butter cream into a smooth base.

The step that matters

Cover the dish while baking. Covering traps steam so the top does not dry out or form a hard crust, keeping the inside moist until the last ten or fifteen minutes.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, cream, bread, milk, egg, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cream, bread, milk, egg, cinnamon. 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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