Name: Coffee Souffle
Ingredients: 4 cups coffee; 1 tablespoon gelatin (strong); ½ cup sugar; ½ cup milk; 3 eggs; 1 teaspoon vanilla; whipped cream for serving

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 ↓

Coffee Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coffee base

Soak the gelatin in a little cold coffee.
In a double boiler, combine the egg yolks, half the sugar, and the soaked gelatin.
Stir the mixture for 5 minutes and remove the double boiler from heat.
Let the mixture cool slightly.

Fold and set

Beat the egg whites with vanilla until stiff peaks form.
Fold the beaten egg whites into the coffee mixture.
Pour the mixture into a wet mold and refrigerate until set.

Serve

Serve with whipped cream.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,628 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,778 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,391 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

Eggs: Whites trap air when beaten, giving the soufflé its light, risen texture; yolks add richness.
Gelatin: Sets the mixture as it cools, so the soufflé holds its shape when chilled.
Coffee: Provides the main flavour and liquid base of the dish.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Vanilla: Adds aroma that rounds out the coffee and egg flavours.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg whites into the coffee mixture. Beaten whites hold the air that makes the soufflé light. Folding gently keeps that foam intact, while stirring hard or adding whites to a warm base deflates them and results in a dense set dessert.

“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.