Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Banana Souffle
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Peel the bananas and place them in a pie dish. Pour lemon juice over the bananas.
Butter a souffle dish.
Separate the yolks from the eggs.
Make the batter
Beat the yolks with castor sugar until creamy.
In a bowl, cream the butter, then gradually add the flour and stir in the egg yolks.
Pass the bananas through a sieve and mix them into the batter.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.
Bake and serve
Transfer the souffle mixture into a paper bag, fold it, and secure the end with clips.
Bake for about 20 minutes and serve immediately.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Banana + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,536 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Banana + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,134 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Bananas
- Provide the main flavour and moisture, becoming a purée that gives the soufflé its body.
- Eggs
- Egg whites trap air for lift and structure, while yolks add richness and set the batter.
- Flour
- Gives the batter enough structure to hold the risen mixture together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and flavour.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the yolks when beaten into a creamy base.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be beaten until stiff and folded in gently. Overmixing knocks out the trapped air, so the soufflé rises less and turns dense.
Swap the banana
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, butter, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Bananathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, butter, flour, 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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