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Dessert

Souffle a LA Milannaise

A lemon souffle made with egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and juice, whipped cream, gelatin, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Souffle a LA Milannaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon base

  1. Whisk together the yolks of the eggs, sugar, grated rind, and juice of the lemons in a saucepan until nearly boiling.

  2. Strain the mixture into a basin.

  3. Let it cool.

  4. Stir in the whipped cream.

  5. Melt the gelatin in ½ cup of water and strain it into the mixture.

  6. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a silver souffle dish with a paper band tied around it.

  2. Let the souffle set until firm.

  3. Remove the paper band.

  4. Sprinkle ratafia crumbs on top.

  5. Serve in the silver souffle case.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 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).

Sugar and lemon 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 base and whites are folded in to give the soufflé its light, airy structure.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the whipped egg foam.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when the paper band is removed.
Lemons
Provide acidity and aroma from the juice and grated rind.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, creamier texture.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the whipped egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whites intact, which is what makes the soufflé rise and stay light. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam and leaves a dense result.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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