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Macaroni Souffle

A baked macaroni soufflé made with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and folded egg whites.

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 ↓

Macaroni Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Break the macaroni into 1-inch lengths and boil in the milk with salt until tender, allowing it to absorb most of the milk.

  2. Set aside to cool.

  3. Beat the yolks of the eggs and sugar into the macaroni mixture.

  4. Season with vanilla or essence.

Bake and serve

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

  2. Pour into a deep dish and bake in a water bath at 400°F (200°C) until set.

  3. Serve with sweetened cream or wine sauce.

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

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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 lift the soufflé, while yolks enrich and help it set.
Macaroni
Provides the body of the dish, absorbing milk to form a tender, starchy base.
Milk
Cooks with the macaroni to form the custardy base that sets when baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the savory-leaning richness of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whites hold air only when beaten until stiff. Folding gently keeps that air in the mixture; overmixing deflates it, so the soufflé rises less and turns dense.

“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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