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Dessert

Ratafia Souffle

A souffle made with ratafía cookies, eggs, milk, butter, flour, sugar, and lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Ratafia Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and mix well.

  3. Add the milk, stirring until the mixture is smooth and thick, and pulls away from the sides of the saucepan.

  4. Let it cool slightly, then stir in the beaten egg yolks, lemon rind, and sugar.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fold in the whipped egg whites until combined.

  2. Turn the mixture into a buttered pie dish or cake tin, layering with ratafias.

  3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with stewed fruit.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  3. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

  4. Wheat + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together585 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the base and whites lift the mixture to give the soufflé its airy structure.
Allinson fine wheat-meal
Flour thickens the milk mixture and gives the soufflé body so it holds its shape.
Butter
Fat enriches the base and adds richness and flavour to the soufflé.
Castor sugar
Sugar sweetens the base and helps the soufflé brown lightly in the oven.
Milk
Liquid cooked with the flour forms a thick sauce that carries the eggs and sets when baked.
Ratafias
Almond-flavoured cookies layered through the mixture add aroma and a crisp, sweet contrast.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whites hold air only if whipped to stiff peaks and folded gently. Stirring or deflating them loses the air that makes the soufflé rise and stay light.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, wheat, butter, sugar, milk. 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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