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Milan Souffle

A lemon souffle made with lemon zest, eggs, whipped cream, sugar, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Milan Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Rub the peel of 4 lemons onto the sugar.

  2. Make a custard with the yolks of 6 eggs and add the juice of the lemons.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Fold in nearly ½ cup of whipped cream and 1 ounce of isinglass.

  2. Whip the egg whites to a strong froth and gently fold them into the mixture.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard, while whipped whites give the soufflé its light, airy structure.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the texture of the mixture.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that helps the soufflé hold its shape.
Lemons
Juice provides acidity and aroma; peel oils add fragrant lemon flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and draws lemon oil from the peel.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be whipped to a strong froth and folded gently. Overmixing deflates the air bubbles that make the soufflé rise and stay light.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, 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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