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Dessert

Apple Souffle

A baked dessert of apples, custard, and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,501 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the apples

  1. Reduce the apples to a pulp and sweeten and flavor them nicely.

  2. Place the apple pulp in the center of a large dish.

Make the custard

  1. Prepare a custard by whisking together the cream, egg yolks, sugar, and flavoring.

  2. Pour the custard over the apples.

Top and bake

  1. Whisk the egg whites to a solid froth and place it in rock‑like pieces over the custard.

  2. Sift the white sugar over the meringue.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until lightly browned, then serve cold.

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. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla 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

Apples
Form the soft pulp base that gives the dish its fruity flavor and body.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream custard so it sets into a rich, smooth layer.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the custard a smooth, tender texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that puffs and sets into the light topping.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites to a solid froth. Egg whites must be whipped to a stable foam to trap air; under-whipped or greasy whites will not hold their volume, so the topping may collapse or bake flat.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar, vanilla. 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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