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Dessert

Cherry Souffle

A light, baked dessert made with milk, flour, eggs, cherries, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cherry Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the base

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and let thicken.

  3. Remove from heat and cool.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  2. Mix in the cooled milk.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites and cherries.

  4. Pour into a souffle dish.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until set.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites trapped in the batter expand in the oven and set into the souffle's light structure.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a stable base that holds the batter together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a custard-like sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded texture to the egg yolk mixture.
Cherries
Add fruit moisture and sweetness, folded in gently to keep the batter airy.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites and cherries. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the egg whites. Stirring or deflating the batter removes that air, so the souffle rises less and turns dense.

“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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