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Dessert

Cornstarch Souffle

A light, airy dessert made by thickening milk with cornstarch, folding in beaten egg whites, and chilling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cornstarch Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Heat 2 cups of milk in a double boiler.

  2. In a bowl, mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt, then moisten with ½ cup cold milk.

  3. Quickly add the mixture to the hot milk, stirring to prevent lumps.

  4. Stir until the milk thickens, stirring every fifteen minutes for one hour.

Finish and chill

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites and vanilla.

  2. Pour into moistened molds and refrigerate until cold.

Serve

  1. Serve with cream and sugar or custard sauce.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and vanilla 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into a smooth, creamy custard.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot milk as its starch gelatinizes, giving the mixture body.
Egg whites
Beaten whites trap air, lightening the texture and giving the souffle its rise.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the flavor of the milk and vanilla.

The step that matters

Adding the cornstarch mixture to the hot milk. Cornstarch clumps if it hits hot liquid unevenly. Moistening it with cold milk first and adding it quickly while stirring lets the starch disperse and thicken smoothly.

“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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