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Dessert

Macaroon Souffle

A sweet, airy dessert made from milk, sugar, cornstarch, macaroon crumbs, vanilla, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Macaroon Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Mix the cornstarch with the cold water and add to the milk.

  3. Stir and cook for 3 minutes.

  4. Add the sugar and macaroon crumbs.

  5. Cook while beating the egg whites until very stiff.

  6. Remove from heat.

Fold and bake

  1. Gradually stir in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into buttered souffle cups, filling them about two-thirds full.

  3. Place the cups in a pan surrounded by boiling water.

  4. Bake for about 20 minutes.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and lift the soufflé as it bakes.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot milk into a stable custard base that holds the whites.
Macaroon crumbs
Add almond and sweet flavour and body to the base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornstarch thickens.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and helps the whites stay stable.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the beaten egg whites.. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whites. Stirring hard or too fast deflates them, so the soufflé will rise less.

“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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