Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Apricot Souffle
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 the apricots
Peel and stone the apricots, then cut them into pieces.
Combine the apricots and sugar in a saucepan, stir, and cook until it forms a marmalade.
Make the base
Melt the butter in another saucepan, then mix in the potato flour smoothly.
Add the milk or cream and cook well.
Stir in the apricot mixture and remove from heat.
Beat the yolks of five eggs and mix them in thoroughly.
Bake
Gently fold in the egg whites that have been beaten to a firm froth.
Pour the mixture into a prepared baking dish and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + apricottop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together826 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Egg whites beaten to a firm froth trap air, lifting the soufflé as it bakes, while yolks enrich the base.
- Potato flour
- Cooked with butter and milk, it thickens the base so it can hold the lifted egg whites.
- Apricots
- Cooked into a marmalade, they add fruit flavour and moisture to the base.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the apricot marmalade and balances its tartness.
- Butter
- Enriches the base and adds richness to the thickened flour mixture.
- Milk or cream
- Cooked with the flour mixture, it forms a smooth, thick base with moisture and richness.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites. Stirring or deflating the mixture removes that air, so the soufflé rises less and turns dense.
Swap the apricot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, potato, flour, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Apricotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, potato, flour, milk, 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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