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Dessert

Orange-Marmalade Souffle

A light, sweet souffle made with orange marmalade, arrowroot, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and orange work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Orange-Marmalade Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Mix the arrowroot with water until smooth.

  2. Heat the mixture over the fire until thickened and boiling.

  3. Stir in the orange marmalade and sugar to taste.

  4. Beat the mixture until somewhat cooled.

Add eggs and bake

  1. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until risen and browned.

  4. Dust with caster sugar, wrap a napkin around the mold, and 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. Arrowroot + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Arrowroot + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,073 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Arrowroot + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
Whisked until stiff, they trap air that makes the soufflé rise and gives it a light texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify into the base, adding fat and body to the custard.
Arrowroot
Thickens the water and marmalade into a smooth base that holds the risen structure.
Orange marmalade
Provides the main flavour and sweetness, along with some acidity and bitter citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites deflate easily if overmixed or if the base is still warm, so fold gently and keep as much air as possible. That trapped air is what lifts the soufflé in the oven.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against arrowroot, sugar, egg. 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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