Name: Pineapple Souffle
Ingredients: 4 oz (½ cup) preserved pineapple, cut into small dice; 4 oz (½ cup) castor sugar; 4 oz (½ cup) butter; ½ pint (1 cup) milk; 3 eggs; 2 inches vanilla pod; angelica for decoration

Why it works: Pineapple and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 911 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Bring the milk and vanilla pod to a boil, then remove from heat and let infuse for 1 hour.
In another pan, heat the butter, stir in the flour, and cook over low heat for 4-5 minutes.
Add the strained milk to the butter mixture, stir, and bring to a boil.
Let it cool slightly, then beat in the egg yolks, sugar, and diced pineapple.
Gently fold in the whisked egg whites.
Prepare a well-buttered mold decorated with strips of angelica and pineapple.
Pour in the mixture, cover with buttered paper, and steam gently for 45-60 minutes.
Unmold and serve immediately with pineapple or other suitable sweet sauce.

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.

Pineapple + vanillatop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together911 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Vanilla + angelicatop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together170 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Swap the angelica

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Peppermintfits about as well
Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, sugar, butter, milk, egg, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.