Skip to main content
Dessert

Souffles— Almond

A sweet almond soufflé made with pounded almonds, icing sugar, and egg whites, baked until lightly colored.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Souffles— Almond

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

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

  2. Finely pound the Jordan and bitter almonds.

  3. In a bowl, mix the pounded almonds with icing sugar.

Shape

  1. Add the whites of 3 eggs and desired flavorings (orange, lemon, vanilla, cinnamon).

  2. Roll out the mixture to ½ inch thickness.

  3. Spread royal icing made from the whites of 2 eggs on top.

  4. Cut into desired shapes using tin cutters or a knife.

Bake

  1. Bake on paper until lightly colored.

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. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Jordan almonds
Provide the main body and nutty texture of the almond paste.
Bitter almonds
Add concentrated almond aroma and a deeper flavor.
Icing sugar
Adds sweetness and bulk, helping the mixture hold together for rolling and cutting.
Egg whites
Bind the paste and add lightness, helping the mixture hold its shape.

The step that matters

Bake until lightly colored. Sugar and egg white brown and dry out quickly in the oven, so removing the shapes once they are lightly colored keeps them tender rather than hard and dark.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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.

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes