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Dessert

Lemon Soufflé

A light, citrusy dessert made by folding whipped egg whites into a lemon‑infused custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and nuts match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Lemon Soufflé

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Combine milk, lemon rind, and isinglass in a saucepan.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Beat egg yolks.

  4. Mix egg yolks into the milk when it is nearly cold.

  5. Return to heat to thicken.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Let cool.

Assemble and set

  1. Fold in whipped egg whites, powdered sugar, lemon juice, chopped pistachios, and currants.

  2. Butter a mold.

  3. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios.

  4. Pour mixture into the mold.

  5. Chill in ice or a very cold place until set.

Serve

  1. Turn out of the mold.

  2. Serve.

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. Pistachio + nutstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Lemon + pistachiotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together431 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the chilled mixture so it holds its shape.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and colour to the base.
Egg whites
Whipped to form foam that lightens the mixture and gives it a soufflé texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the eggs thicken.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the mixture and dissolves easily into the cooled base.

The step that matters

Mix egg yolks into the milk when it is nearly cold. If the milk is too hot, the egg yolks can scramble instead of blending smoothly. Cooling the base first keeps the custard smooth before it is returned to heat to thicken.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, lemon, egg, sugar, pistachio, nuts, butter. 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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