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Dessert

Vanilla Souffle

A light, airy dessert made by folding beaten egg whites into a vanilla-flavored custard base and steaming.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Vanilla Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Whisk in the flour and milk to make a sauce.

  3. Bring to a boil and cool slightly.

  4. Beat in the yolks of 3 eggs one at a time.

  5. Mix in the sugar and vanilla essence.

Fold and fill the dish

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold the egg whites into the mixture.

  3. Prepare a well-buttered souffle dish.

  4. Tie a band of buttered paper around the outside, extending it 3 inches above the rim.

  5. Pour the souffle mixture into the dish.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover with greased paper to prevent condensation from dripping in.

  2. Steam for 30 minutes.

  3. Turn out and serve immediately with vanilla or raspberry 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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 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).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the base; whipped whites trap air so the soufflé rises.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and body.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a sauce that holds the batter together.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat, adding flavor and a smooth texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and adds a little body to the whipped whites.
Vanilla essence
Adds aroma and flavor to the custard base.

The step that matters

Gently fold the egg whites into the mixture.. The whites hold air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Stirring vigorously or overmixing deflates them, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense.

Swap the vanilla

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

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

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