Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Apple 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 rice
Boil the milk with the lemon rind until well flavored, then strain it.
Add the rice and let it swell gradually over low heat, adding sugar to sweeten.
Crush the rice to a smooth pulp with a wooden spoon.
Grease the bottom and sides of a round cake tin with the rice pulp.
Make the soufflé and bake
Mix the marmalade with the beaten egg yolks and butter, stirring over heat until thickened.
Remove from heat and fold in the beaten egg whites until combined.
Pour the mixture into the rice border and bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until the soufflé rises and is light.
Serve immediately, as it will fall quickly after being taken from the oven.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
Rice + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,311 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Swells and is crushed into a smooth pulp that forms the border holding the soufflé.
- Egg whites
- Beaten whites trap air, letting the soufflé rise and become light in the oven.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the marmalade mixture over heat and enrich the soufflé base.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base, carrying the lemon flavor into the dish.
- Apple marmalade
- Provides the main fruit flavor and sweetness in the soufflé base.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Overmixing or deflating them while folding leaves a dense result, so fold gently until just combined and bake promptly.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, lemon, sugar, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, lemon, sugar, egg, butter. 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.
More apple soufflé recipes
You might also like
Lemon Rice Pudding19 recipes
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.