Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Souffle
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Pour boiling water over isinglass, lemon juice, and sugar.
Boil the mixture for 5 minutes until dissolved.
Cool, whisk and set
Pour into a large basin and let it cool until steam dissipates.
Whisk the mixture until it becomes spongy.
Transfer to a glass dish and refrigerate overnight.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Isinglass
- Gelling agent that sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
- Lemon juice
- Adds sharp acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dish and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool until steam dissipates before whisking. Isinglass is a gelling agent that thickens as it cools. Whisking while the mixture is still hot prevents it from holding air and forming a spongy foam, and the setting structure may not form properly.
“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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