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Dessert

Greengage Souffle

A sweet soufflé made from greengages, eggs, ground rice, butter, milk, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Greengage Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Skin and stone the greengages.

  2. Blanch and grind the kernels.

  3. Gently cook the greengages in the water with the kernels and sugar until reduced to a pulp.

Make the soufflé base

  1. Mix the ground rice with the milk until smooth, then gradually add to the fruit mixture.

  2. Add the butter and bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-greased dish and bake for 30 minutes in a brisk oven at 400 °F (200 °C).

  2. Serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites beaten and folded in give the soufflé its light, risen structure.
Ground rice
Thickens the milk and fruit mixture so it holds body before baking.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the base.
Greengages
Provide the main fruit flavour and, reduced to a pulp, the body of the base.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only if they are beaten to soft peaks and folded in gently; overmixing knocks out the air, so the soufflé will not rise well in the oven.

“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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