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Dessert

Gooseberry Souffle

A baked dessert of stewed gooseberries folded into a beaten egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Gooseberry Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Stew the gooseberries with ½ cup of water until soft, adding sugar to taste.

  2. Rub the fruit through a coarse sieve and place it in a pie dish.

Make the base and bake

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs well.

  2. Mix the beaten yolks with the heated milk.

  3. Pour the mixture over the gooseberries. Mix well.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until set.

Top and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Add a little castor sugar to the whites.

  3. Lay the beaten egg whites over the souffle a few minutes before it is done.

  4. Let it set in the oven.

  5. Serve quickly.

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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Gooseberries
Form the tart fruit base and add acidity that balances the sugar.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the custard; whipped whites give the souffle its light, risen top.
Milk
Adds moisture and body, combining with the egg yolks to form a custard.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the tart fruit and the whipped whites.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites at the right time. Whipped whites are a fragile foam that sets with heat. Adding them a few minutes before the end lets the custard underneath set while the top stays light; too early and the foam can deflate and sink into the base.

“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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