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Dessert

Squash Souffle

A baked dish of steamed squash, sugar, milk, lard, eggs, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Squash Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Force the hot squash through a sieve before measuring.

  2. Add brown sugar, lard, pepper, milk, and beaten egg yolks until thick and lemon colored.

Fold and bake

  1. Cut and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Turn into a buttered baking dish and bake until firm.

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

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Squash
Supplies the bulk and moisture that make up most of the souffle's body.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the base, and whipped whites trap air that lifts and sets the souffle.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the set custard for a tender texture.
Lard
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer texture.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Whites hold the air that makes a souffle rise. Cutting and folding gently keeps those bubbles intact, while stirring or overmixing deflates them and leaves a dense result.

“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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