Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Souffle
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Beat the yolks until thick and light in color.
Gradually add sugar while continuing to beat.
Add lemon juice and rind, and beat until very light.
Beat the egg whites until dry and fold carefully into the yolk mixture.
Bake and serve
Transfer to a buttered baking dish.
Place the dish in a larger dish filled with boiling water.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 35 minutes.
Serve immediately, with or without sauce.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 provide the airy structure that lifts the soufflé, while yolks add richness and set the custard base.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the beaten foam so it holds its volume.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps stabilise the egg foam.
- Lemon rind
- Carries aromatic oils that give the soufflé its fresh lemon fragrance.
The step that matters
Fold the whites into the yolk mixture. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the beaten egg whites. Stirring or deflating the foam makes the soufflé heavy and prevents it from rising well in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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