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Dessert

Walnut Souffle

A baked walnut soufflé made with egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, and grated walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,035 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Walnut 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, stir together the egg yolks and sugar.

  2. Add the grated walnut meats and the beaten egg whites to the mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding dish.

Bake

  1. Place the pudding dish in a larger pan filled with hot water.

  2. Bake for about 15 minutes.

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. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Egg + walnuttop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Walnut + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten whites trap air, giving the souffle its light, risen structure as they set.
Egg yolks
Yolks add richness and help bind the mixture into a smooth, tender custard.
Walnut meats
Ground walnuts add body, nutty flavour and a moist, dense texture to the souffle.
Sugar
Sugar sweetens the mixture and helps stabilise the yolks for a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Place the dish in a water bath. Surrounding the dish with hot water keeps the edges from overheating, so the souffle cooks gently and evenly rather than drying or curdling at the sides.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Almondfits about as well
  4. Nutsfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, meat, sugar. 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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