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 ↓
A Souffle to Be Served Whole
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, combine grated apples, sugar, butter, lemon rind, lemon juice, milk, and corn starch or flour.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and then fold them into the apple mixture.
Prepare a silver dish or mold that holds 3 quarts by pinning a band of buttered paper around the sides to make it higher.
Bake and serve
Pour the lemon sponge mixture into the prepared mold and bake for about 30 minutes.
Sprinkle vanilla-flavored sugar on top while baking.
Remove the paper just before serving.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + corntop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whipped into the batter, they set into a light, airy structure as the soufflé bakes.
- Apples
- Grated apples supply moisture and fruity flavour, giving the soufflé its body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly during baking.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, softening the texture and carrying flavour.
- Corn starch or flour
- Thickens the mixture so it holds its shape around the set eggs.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness, helping the batter stay tender while baking.
The step that matters
Fold the eggs into the apple mixture. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the eggs. Stirring vigorously deflates the batter, and the soufflé then rises less and bakes up dense.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, lemon, milk, corn, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, lemon, milk, corn, 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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