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Dessert

Vanilla Souffle

A baked vanilla soufflé made with milk, flour, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, salt, and optional fruit pulp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Vanilla Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Put the milk into a double boiler with the salt.

  2. When the milk is scalded, add the butter and flour, which have been rubbed together.

  3. Stir for ten minutes to cook the flour and form a smooth paste.

  4. Turn the paste onto the yolks of the eggs, which, with the sugar added, have been beaten to a cream.

  5. Mix thoroughly and flavor the mixture.

  6. Set the mixture away to cool.

Bake

  1. Rub a little butter over the top so that no crust will form.

  2. Just before serving, fold lightly the beaten whites of the eggs, which have been beaten to a stiff froth, into the mixture.

  3. Turn the mixture into a buttered pudding-dish and bake in a moderate oven for thirty to forty minutes.

  4. Alternatively, put the mixture into buttered paper cases, filling them one half full, and bake ten to fifteen minutes.

Serve and vary

  1. Serve with the souffle foamy sauce (page 445).

  2. Serve at once after it is taken from the oven.

  3. This souffle may be varied by using different flavors; also by putting a layer of crushed fruit in the bottom of the dish, or by mixing a half cupful of fruit-pulp with the paste before the whites are added.

  4. If fruit pulp is added, the whites of two more eggs will be needed to give sufficient lightness.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
121 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Mary Ronald. 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth paste that gives the soufflé its base structure.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the base, while beaten whites trap air that lifts the soufflé.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the flour thickens and makes the custard base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the base.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and helps the beaten yolks form a smooth cream.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten whites lightly, just before serving. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites from collapsing, and that trapped air is what makes the soufflé rise in the oven.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, sugar, butter, 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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