Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Apricot Souffle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Drain the apricots and pass them through a fine sieve.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and add the milk (you can replace some milk with apricot syrup).
Cook over medium heat until the mixture no longer sticks to the sides of the pan.
Let it cool slightly, then beat in the egg yolks, add the sugar and apricot pulp.
Bake and serve
Gently fold in the stiffly whisked egg whites.
Pour the mixture into a well-buttered souffle dish and steam slowly for 40 to 45 minutes.
Unmold and serve immediately with a suitable 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Apricot + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together826 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apricot + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,458 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 and folded in, they trap air and give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the base and add richness and body while helping it set.
- Vienna flour
- Cooked with butter and milk into a thick base that gives the soufflé its body.
- Apricots
- Supply the fruit flavour and moisture through the sieved pulp.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the flour-and-milk base and helps prevent sticking.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly whisked whites hold the air that lifts the soufflé. Folding gently keeps that air in, while vigorous stirring deflates the mixture and leaves a heavy result.
Swap the apricot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Apricotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, milk, 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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