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Dessert

Souffle a l’ITALIENNE

A light soufflé flavored with ratafia, lemon rind, and orange flower water, finished with cream and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Souffle a l’ITALIENNE

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Combine flour, butter, ratafia, lemon rind, orange flower water, and 1 egg in a saucepan.

  2. Mix well and gradually add milk until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add a little more milk.

  3. Heat until just boiling.

Finish and bake

  1. Stir in the yolks of 7 eggs, then strain through a fine sieve.

  2. Add ½ pint of cream and mix thoroughly.

  3. Pour into a deep dish.

  4. Sift powdered sugar on top.

  5. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C).

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Thickens the mixture and gives the soufflé its body as it sets.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard, adding richness and help it set smoothly when baked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a custard.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the set custard.

The step that matters

Heat until just boiling. Flour-thickened mixtures need enough heat to cook the starch and thicken fully, but boiling too hard or too long can scorch the milk and make the texture grainy.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, lemon, egg, milk, cream. 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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