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Dessert

Custard Souffle

A sweet custard soufflé made with sugar, flour, milk, butter, egg yolks, and egg whites, baked until risen.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Custard 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 custard base

  1. Mix the sugar and flour with a little cold milk.

  2. Stir this mixture into the boiling milk and cook for 10 minutes, stirring until smooth.

  3. Add the butter and mix well, then stir in the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Remove from the stove and gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding dish or small molds.

  2. Place the dish in a pan of hot water and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes, or 20 minutes for small molds.

  3. Serve immediately with whipped cream or a light sauce.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg whites
Whipped into the batter, they trap air that lifts the souffle as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set into a tender, rich texture.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk into a stable custard that can hold the folded whites.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds body to the base.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and flavor.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when they are beaten to soft peaks and folded in gently. Stirring or deflating them removes that trapped air, so the souffle will rise less and turn dense.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, milk, butter, egg):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, butter, egg. 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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