Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Souffle a LA Vanille
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the crust
Prepare a crust by lining a raised pie mold with pastry and filling it with bread crumbs.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour until lightly browned.
Remove the bread crumbs without taking the crust out of the mold.
Tie a band of buttered paper around the top and set aside.
Make the custard
In a saucepan, mix butter and flour without melting the butter.
In another saucepan, bring milk to a boil with the vanilla sticks.
Cover and let cool slightly.
Remove the vanilla and pour the milk into the butter and flour mixture.
Stir over medium heat for 5 minutes.
Quickly stir in the egg yolks and sweeten with sugar.
Let the mixture cool.
Bake and serve
An hour and a quarter before serving, beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gently fold them into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into the prepared crust.
Bake until set.
Serve immediately.
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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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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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Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vanilla and sugar 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
- Egg whites
- Beaten until stiff and folded in, they lighten the mixture and help it rise.
- Egg yolks
- They enrich the custard and help set it as it bakes.
- Flour
- Cooked with butter and milk, it thickens the base to hold the soufflé structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the base and helps form the thickened roux.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that is thickened into the custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard base.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Beaten whites trap air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the whites produces a flat, dense result.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillathe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, egg, 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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