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Dessert

Apple Souffle

A baked apple dessert with butter, sugar, eggs, breadcrumbs, and lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Apple Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the apple base

  1. Steam the chopped apples in a double boiler without water until tender.

  2. Stir in the butter and sugar, then remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Once cool, beat in the egg yolks and grated lemon peel.

Add the whites and bake

  1. Add the beaten egg whites.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, mixing well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 1 hour, covering for the first 45 minutes.

  5. Serve warm in the baking dish.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

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

  4. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to trap air, lifting the soufflé as it bakes and sets.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set into a custardy, tender texture when baked.
Apples
Provide the main body, moisture and fruity flavour of the soufflé.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, giving the soufflé structure as it sets.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and adds to the soft, tender texture of the finished dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the texture and adding flavour to the apple base.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold the air that makes a soufflé rise. Folding them in gently keeps that air; overmixing deflates the batter, so the dish bakes flat and dense.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, bread, lemon. 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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