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 the batter
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.
Bake and serve
Prepare a 3-quart silver dish or mold by wrapping a band of buttered paper around it to make it higher.
Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and bake for about 30 minutes.
Sprinkle vanilla-flavored sugar on top during the last few minutes of 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 and folded in, they trap air and set into the airy, risen structure of the soufflé.
- Grated apples
- Provide the main fruit body and moisture, cooking down into the soft base of the soufflé.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apple base and helps give the top a light browning during baking.
- Corn starch or flour
- Thickens the apple mixture so it can hold the air from the eggs without collapsing.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and flavour.
The step that matters
Folding in the eggs. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the eggs intact. Stirring or deflating the mixture removes that air, so the soufflé will rise less and may turn 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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