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Dessert

Orange Soufla

A light dessert of orange slices folded into custard and topped with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,696 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Orange Soufla

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the oranges into thin slices and sweeten them with sugar.

  2. Whisk the egg yolks with the milk to make a soft custard and cool it.

  3. Pour the cooled custard over the sweetened oranges.

Make the topping and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and sweeten them with sugar.

  2. Gently slide the beaten egg whites on top of the custard.

  3. Place the dish in a pan of cold water and warm it in the oven for a short time.

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. Orange + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Beaten until stiff, they trap air and give the soufflé its light, risen texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a soft custard that gives the dish its rich body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, carrying the egg yolks and keeping the texture soft.
Oranges
Provide the fruit flavour and acidity that contrasts with the sweet custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the oranges and the egg whites, and helps the whites hold their stiff structure.

The step that matters

Gently slide the beaten egg whites on top of the custard. Folding or sliding the whites too roughly knocks out the air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Adding them gently keeps the foam intact so the topping stays light when it warms.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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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