Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Souffles a LA Vanille
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the mold
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a raised pie mold with pastry and fill the center with breadcrumbs to prevent it from collapsing.
Bake until light brown, then remove the breadcrumbs.
Tie a band of buttered paper around the top of the mold.
Make the base
In a saucepan, mix the butter and flour without melting the butter.
Heat the milk with vanilla until lukewarm, then pour it over the flour mixture.
Stir over medium heat and boil for 5 minutes.
Quickly add the beaten egg yolks and sifted sugar, then let it cool.
Bake and serve
An hour and a quarter before serving, whip the egg whites until firm and gently fold them into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into the prepared mold and bake until set.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vanilla and sugar 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
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Whipped to firm foam, they trap air and lift the soufflé as it bakes.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the base and help it set into a custard-like structure as it bakes.
- Fine flour
- Thickens the milk into a stable base that holds the whipped egg whites.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the base.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and adds body to the mixture.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the foam leaves a dense, flat result.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillathe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, egg, sugar. 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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