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Dessert

Raspberry Souffles

A light dessert of sponge cakes topped with raspberry jam and airy egg white soufflé, finished with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Raspberry Souffles

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 cakes

  1. Cut the spongecakes in half and spread a little raspberry jam on each half.

  2. Arrange the halves on a dish, sift sugar over them, and pour brandy and sherry on top.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. Whisk the egg whites with castor sugar until stiff.

  2. Spread the egg white mixture on the cakes and place in a 350°F (175°C) oven to set.

Finish and serve

  1. Let them cool, then add small heaps of raspberry jam on top and decorate with whipped cream.

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. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Raspberry + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Raspberry + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

  5. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Spongecakes
Provide the soft, absorbent base that soaks up the brandy and sherry.
Egg whites
Whisked into a foam that sets in the oven to form a light, airy topping.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the egg whites and helps stabilise the whisked foam.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the soaked spongecake base.
Sherry
Adds aroma and flavour to the soaked spongecake base.
Raspberry jam
Adds fruity sweetness and flavour between the layers and on top.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be whisked to a firm foam without over-beating, since the foam traps air that gives the topping its lightness and holds its shape in the oven.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits about as well
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, sherry, egg, cream. 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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