Name: Date Souffle
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 2 eggs; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 cup walnuts, quartered; 1 cup dates, seeded and cut in half

Why it works: Walnut and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Date Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the sugar, eggs, flour, and baking powder.
Fold in the walnuts and dates.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

Bake and serve

Bake for about 30 minutes.
Serve with whipped cream, sweetened to taste and flavored with vanilla.

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.

Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + datestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs: Provide structure and lift to the batter as they set during baking.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping it rise and become light.
Flour: Gives the batter body so it holds its shape around the fruit and nuts.
Sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps it brown slightly at the edges.
Dates: Add moisture and natural sweetness to the finished souffle.