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Dessert

Princess Pudding or Cold Soufflé

A chilled gelatin-based dessert made with milk, gelatine, egg yolks, apricot purée, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and apricot work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 826 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Princess Pudding or Cold Soufflé

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. In a saucepan, combine the milk and gelatine, stirring over low heat until dissolved without boiling.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and add them to the milk mixture, stirring until well mixed.

  3. Continue to stir over low heat until the mixture thickens, but do not let it boil; then add the sugar.

Flavour and set

  1. Pour the mixture into a bowl and add the apricot purée, lemon juice, and cochineal.

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

  3. Stir until nearly cold, then pour into a decorated mould and refrigerate until set.

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. Milk + apricottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together826 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Apricot + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,098 recipes

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

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

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

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

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

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

Gelatine
Sets the chilled mixture so the soufflé holds its shape when unmoulded.
Egg yolks
Thicken the base and add richness and a smooth, custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they give the soufflé its light, airy structure.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base that the yolks thicken into a custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and balances the tartness of the fruit and lemon.

The step that matters

Thicken the custard without boiling. Egg yolks scramble if overheated, which leaves lumps and a grainy texture. Stirring over low heat until the mixture thickens keeps it smooth and able to set properly.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, lemon. 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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