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Macaroni Souffle

A baked macaroni dish made with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Macaroni Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Break the macaroni into 1-inch lengths.

  2. Boil the macaroni in the milk with salt until tender.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool.

  4. Beat in the egg yolks and sugar.

  5. Season with vanilla or essence.

  6. Fold in the whipped egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a deep dish.

  2. Place the dish in a pan of hot water.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until set.

  4. Serve with sweetened cream or wine sauce.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Whipped and folded in to lighten the mixture and give the soufflé its rise.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set firm when baked.
Macaroni
Forms the body of the soufflé, soaked and softened in the milk.
Milk
Cooks with the macaroni to create a creamy base that sets when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds to its tender texture.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air in the whipped whites. Stirring or deflating them would lose the lift that lets the soufflé rise in the oven.

“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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