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Dessert

Souffle Au Chocolat

A chocolate soufflé made with sweet milk, grated chocolate, cornstarch, eggs, vanilla, and sugar.

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 ↓

Souffle Au Chocolat

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the chocolate base

  1. Heat the sweet milk with the grated chocolate until hot.

  2. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little cold milk and add it to the hot mixture, stirring until it thickens.

  3. Sweeten to taste and add a little vanilla; let it cool.

Finish and bake

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with the cooled chocolate mixture.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  3. Bake immediately in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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
Whipped whites lift the mixture and give the soufflé its airy structure as it bakes.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot chocolate milk into a stable base that holds the folded eggs.
Baker's chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavour and body of the base.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that the chocolate and cornstarch thicken.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined. Egg whites hold air only when whipped and folded gently; overmixing deflates them, and the soufflé will not rise well. Baking right away keeps the trapped air from collapsing.

“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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