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Dessert

Arrowroot Souffl^

A light, custard-like soufflé made with arrowroot, milk, lemon rind, sugar, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Arrowroot Souffl^

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 custard base

  1. Boil the milk with the lemon rind, stirring to prevent burning.

  2. Mix the arrowroot with a little cold milk to form a smooth cream.

  3. Pour the arrowroot mixture into the boiling milk and return to the saucepan.

  4. Boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat.

  5. Stir in the sugar and egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Pour into a well‑greased pie dish or ramequin cases.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

  4. Dust with sugar and serve hot.

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. Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Milk + arrowroottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together817 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Egg whites whisked to stiff peaks trap air, lifting the soufflé as it bakes and sets.
Arrowroot
Starch that thickens the milk into a smooth base that holds the whipped whites.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the arrowroot thickens.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and adds a light browning and finish on the surface.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be whisked until stiff and folded gently. Stirring or deflating them loses the trapped air, so the soufflé rises less and turns dense.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Arrowrootthe original
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

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