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Dessert

Apple Souffle

A baked dessert of stewed apples, custard, and beaten egg whites topped with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Apple Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the apples

  1. Stew the apples and mix in the grated lemon peel and lemon juice.

  2. Line the sides and bottom of a dish with the apple mixture, about 2 inches thick.

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard by heating the milk and whisking in the eggs; let it cool.

  2. Pour the cooled custard into the center of the dish.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and spread them over the top.

  2. Sprinkle sugar on top and bake at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes.

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. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

  3. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Stewed apples
Form the fruit base and add moisture and mild tartness to the dish.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving a soft, creamy texture.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it structure and body.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they create the light, airy soufflé topping that rises and browns.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Let the custard cool before pouring it in. Pouring in hot custard can cook the egg whites unevenly and disturb the layers, so letting it cool keeps the dish's structure and top stable while baking.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

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