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Dessert

Gooseberry Souffle

A baked gooseberry soufflé made with stewed gooseberries, milk, eggs, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Gooseberry 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.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Stew the gooseberries with ½ cup of water until soft, adding sugar to taste.

  2. Rub the fruit through a coarse sieve.

  3. Place the sieved fruit in a pie dish.

Make the custard layer

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs well.

  2. Mix the beaten yolks with the heated milk.

  3. Pour the yolk‑milk mixture over the gooseberries, mixing well.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until set.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  3. Add a little castor sugar to the froth.

  4. Spread the egg whites over the soufflé a few minutes before it is done.

  5. Let the soufflé set in the oven.

  6. Serve quickly.

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

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Gooseberries
Provide the tart fruit base and most of the moisture in the soufflé.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the fruit and milk mixture; whites are whipped to lighten and set the top.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the yolk mixture, softening the set custard.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the fruit and stabilises the whipped egg whites for a glossy top.

The step that matters

Spread the egg whites over the soufflé a few minutes before it is done. Stiff whites lose volume if they sit or are overbaked. Adding them late lets the top set lightly and brown without collapsing, while the custard beneath stays set.

“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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