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Dessert

Beignets Souffles

A fried dough made from a batter of flour, water, eggs, butter, sugar, lemon peel, and vanilla, served hot with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Beignets Souffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine butter, salt, sugar, lemon peel, and boiling water in a saucepan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Remove the saucepan from heat.

  4. Stir in enough flour to form a paste.

  5. Return the saucepan to heat.

  6. Stir until the batter is smooth and thick enough to leave the sides of the saucepan.

  7. Remove the saucepan from heat again.

  8. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  9. Fold in the beaten egg white until combined.

  10. Chill the batter in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a deep saucepan to at least 2 inches deep until boiling.

  2. Test the lard with a small piece of batter; if it sizzles, it is ready.

  3. Drop in pieces of batter the size of a nut.

  4. Fry the batter pieces until golden brown on all sides.

  5. Remove the beignets with a skimmer.

  6. Drain the beignets on paper.

  7. Sift powdered sugar over the beignets.

  8. Serve the beignets hot.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, setting the batter so it puffs when fried.
Flour
Forms the paste and gives the batter body so the pieces hold their shape.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness to the batter.
Boiling water
Gelatinises the flour starch when stirred in, producing a smooth, workable paste.
Egg white
Adds lightness and helps the beignets puff in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Testing the lard temperature. If the lard is too cool, the batter absorbs fat and becomes greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks. A small test piece that sizzles vigorously shows the fat is ready.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, butter, vanilla):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, butter, vanilla. 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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