Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Souffle Flavoured with Orange Flower
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Separate the egg whites and yolks.
Make the base
Beat the egg yolks with sugar until creamy.
Heat the milk and stir in the orange flower water.
Combine the milk mixture with the egg yolk mixture.
Bake
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Pour into a buttered baking dish.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until puffed and golden.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whites trap air for lift, and yolks add richness and structure as the soufflé sets.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and helps stabilise the yolks as they are beaten.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that gives the soufflé its custard-like body.
- Orange flower water
- Adds a floral aroma that defines the flavour of the dish.
- Butter
- Greases the dish so the soufflé can rise evenly and release cleanly.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Egg whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the soufflé will rise less and may turn dense.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, butter. 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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