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Dessert

Greengage Souffle

A baked dessert made from greengages, eggs, ground rice, butter, milk, water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Greengage Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fruit

  1. Skin and stone the greengages.

  2. Blanch and grind the kernels.

Make the mixture

  1. Gently cook the greengages in water with the kernels and sugar until reduced to a pulp.

  2. Mix the ground rice with the milk until smooth, then gradually add to the fruit mixture.

  3. Add the butter and bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-greased dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites beaten and folded in trap air, giving the souffle its light, risen texture.
Ground rice
Thickens the milk and fruit pulp so the mixture holds its body before baking.
Greengages
Provide the main fruit flavour and, reduced to a pulp, the moist base of the souffle.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the mixture.
Milk
Combines with the ground rice to form a smooth thickened base and adds softness.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten to stiff peaks and folded in gently. Overmixing knocks out the air, and the souffle will bake flat and dense instead of rising.

“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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