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Dessert

Apple Souffle

A baked apple soufflé made with apples, butter, sugar, eggs, breadcrumbs, and lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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.

Prepare the apples

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

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

Make the soufflé

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

  2. Alternately add the beaten egg whites and bread crumbs, mixing well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

Bake and serve

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

  2. 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
Beaten whites trap air, giving the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the mixture set into a tender, custard-like crumb.
Apples
Cooked to a pulp, they supply moisture and the main body of the dish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the mixture body so it holds its shape while baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and adds to its tender texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites trap air only if they are beaten to the right stiffness and mixed in gently but thoroughly. Overmixing deflates the foam, and the soufflé will bake up 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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