Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Apricot Souffle
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Drain the apricots using a colander.
In a saucepan, beat the apricots with ½ cup of sugar.
Make the soufflé
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold in the apricot mixture.
Pour into custard cups or a pudding dish.
Bake and serve
Bake in a water bath at 400°F (200°C) until firm and slightly browned.
Serve with boiled custard sauce.
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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Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,630 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Apricot + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,712 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Apricot + saucetop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together152 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff foam that traps air, giving the soufflé its light, risen structure.
- Apricots
- Provide the fruit flavour and moisture that forms the body of the soufflé base.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apricot base and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.
The step that matters
Folding the apricot mixture into the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air in the whipped whites; stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé heavy and prevents it from rising well in the oven.
Swap the apricot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, sauce):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Apricotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, sauce. 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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