Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Mce Souffle
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
Mix the ground rice with 6 tablespoons of milk until smooth.
Combine this mixture with the remaining milk and butter in a saucepan, stirring over heat for about 30 minutes until thickened.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites.
Beat the yolks and stir in the rice mixture and enough sugar to sweeten the soufflé.
Bake and serve
Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the rice mixture.
Pour the mixture into a soufflé dish and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven, sprinkle sifted sugar on top, and serve immediately.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + walnuttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whipped whites give the soufflé its light, risen structure, while yolks enrich the custard.
- Ground rice
- Cooked with milk, it thickens into a starchy base that gives the soufflé body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the ground rice swells and thickens in.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and adds a little sweetness to the finished soufflé.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, smoothing the texture of the thickened base.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites whipped to stiff peaks hold the air that lifts the soufflé. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the batter makes the soufflé heavy and flat.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, sugar, lemon, butter):
- Almondfits better
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Milletfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, sugar, lemon, butter. 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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