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Dessert

Vanilla Souffle

A light, airy dessert made by folding beaten egg whites into a vanilla and lemon custard, then baking until puffed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Vanilla 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 base

  1. Separate the egg whites and yolks.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the yolks, sugar, flour, vanilla, lemon rind, and milk.

  3. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes.

Fold and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold the egg whites into the saucepan mixture, a little at a time.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until puffed and lightly browned.

Serve

  1. Serve with a sprinkle of granulated sugar on top.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vanilla + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Whipped whites trap air for lift; yolks thicken and enrich the base.
Flour
Thickens the custard base so it can hold the folded whites.
Milk
Forms the liquid body of the custard base.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and helps stabilise the whipped whites.

The step that matters

Folding the whites into the base. Whipped whites hold air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the bake comes out flat and dense. Fold gently and gradually.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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