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Dessert

Apple Souffle

A baked dessert of sweetened apple puree folded with beaten eggs and thickened with cornstarch and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Apple Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the apples

  1. Pare, core, and cook the apples in just enough water to prevent burning.

  2. Pass the cooked apples through a sieve, sweeten to taste, and add lemon extract.

Make the thickened base

  1. Sift together cornstarch and flour, then dissolve in cold water.

  2. Melt butter, add salt, and pour in boiling water.

  3. Add the flour and cornstarch mixture and cook until clear.

  4. Stir in the apple pulp and remove from heat.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the eggs separately; add the yolks to the apple mixture, then fold in the egg whites.

  2. Pour into a shallow baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until puffed and brown.

  3. Serve immediately.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Whipped whites trap air, letting the soufflé rise and become light and puffed.
Apples
Provide the main fruit flavor and, as pulp, the body of the soufflé base.
Cornstarch
Thickens the apple base so it can hold the folded egg whites without collapsing.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the base a smoother, rounder flavor.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be beaten separately and folded in gently. Stirring or deflating them removes the trapped air that makes the soufflé rise, so it bakes flat and dense.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, flour, 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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