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Dessert

Ornamented Soufflé

A light, airy soufflé with a pastry border, flavored with sugar, wine, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Ornamented Soufflé

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar.

  3. Mix in the white wine.

  4. Once the mixture is cold, add a little essence of cinnamon.

  5. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.

  6. Prepare a pastry border around a dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the soufflé mixture into it, forming a pyramid shape.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. White wine + cinnamontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together560 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  4. Egg + cinnamontop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Sugar + white winetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 trapped as foam give the soufflé its light, risen structure, while yolks add richness.
White sugar
Sweetens the yolk base and helps stabilise the mixture as it is beaten.
White wine
Adds acidity and liquid to the yolk base, lending a bright flavour.

The step that matters

Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture. Egg white foam holds the air that makes the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense instead of light.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, white wine):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, white wine. 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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