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Dessert

Custard Souffle

A light custard soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, egg yolks, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Custard 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.

Make the base

  1. In a bowl, beat together the butter and flour until light and smooth.

  2. Gradually pour the boiling milk over the mixture, stirring constantly.

  3. Cook for 8 minutes while stirring.

Make the custard

  1. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar.

  2. Add the cooled mixture to the egg yolk mixture and stir well.

  3. When cool, fold in the beaten egg whites until combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 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).

Butter and flour 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

Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they trap air and give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the base, adding richness and helping it set as it bakes.
Flour
Thickens the milk with butter into a stable base that supports the soufflé.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding moisture and a soft, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds flavour to the egg yolk mixture.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air in the beaten whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé heavy and less able to rise in the oven.

“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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