Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Iced Souffle
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Beat the egg yolks and egg whites together.
Add nutmeg and sugar to the eggs.
Heat the milk until almost boiling, then pour it over the egg mixture while stirring.
Return the mixture to the saucepan and stir over low heat until it thickens, being careful not to boil.
Transfer the custard to a bowl and let it cool completely.
Freeze and assemble
Stir in ½ pint of cream and pour into a freezer to freeze until firm.
Pack the frozen custard into a 1½ pint souffle tin, wrapping it with kitchen paper to increase the depth.
Whip the remaining cream to stiff peaks and spread it on top of the frozen custard.
Place the tin in a freezer, surrounding it with ice and rock salt to freeze the souffle.
Serve
Carefully transfer the frozen souffle to a silver dish or serve in the tin with a napkin around it.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together24,744 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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 yolks
- Thicken the custard as they set on gentle heating, giving it a rich texture.
- Egg whites
- Add airy structure to the base, helping the frozen dessert hold its light body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that the eggs thicken.
- Double cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving a smooth, creamy texture once frozen.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen dessert.
The step that matters
Stir the custard over low heat without boiling. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the custard boils, the eggs scramble and the smooth texture is lost.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, cream):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Gingerfits less well
- Peppermintfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, cream. 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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