Name: Coffee Souffle
Ingredients: 1 pint milk; 2 egg whites; 1 cup whipped cream; 4 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons ground coffee; 3 tablespoons water

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Coffee Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Soften the gelatine in 3 tablespoons of milk.
Tie the ground coffee in muslin and scald it in a double saucepan with the remaining milk and sugar.
Remove the coffee, add the softened gelatine to the scalding mixture, and stir until dissolved.
Cool the mixture, then fold in the beaten egg whites and whipped cream.
Turn the mixture into a prepared mold and chill until set.
Unmold and serve plain or with soft custard made from the leftover egg yolks.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,202 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,339 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,344 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

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