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Dessert

Beignets Souffles

A light beignet made from a batter of butter, sugar, lemon peel, flour, eggs, and egg white, fried in lard and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Beignets Souffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Combine butter, salt, sugar, lemon peel, and boiling water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in enough flour to make a paste (about 1 cup).

  3. Stir over low heat until smooth and thick enough to leave the sides of the saucepan.

  4. Remove from heat and beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg white until combined.

Chill

  1. Chill the batter in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Fry and serve

  1. In a deep saucepan, heat lard to at least 2 inches deep until boiling.

  2. Test the lard with a small piece of batter; if it sizzles, it's ready.

  3. Drop in pieces of batter the size of a nut and fry until golden brown on all sides.

  4. Remove with a skimmer and drain on paper.

  5. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Eggs
Set during frying to give the puffs structure and lift.
Flour
Forms a starchy paste that gives the batter its body and holds its shape.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender interior and richer flavour.
Egg white
Beaten air adds lightness so the beignets puff.
Lard
Frying fat that cooks the batter quickly and browns the outside.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the exterior brown.

The step that matters

Frying in properly hot lard. Hot fat sets the outside quickly, so the puffs rise and brown without soaking up grease. Cool fat lets the batter absorb oil and turn heavy and greasy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, butter, vanilla. 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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