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Dessert

Ginger Souffle

A sweet, airy dessert made with ginger, lemon rind, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ginger Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the base

  1. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together.

  2. Add the chopped ginger, grated lemon rind, and potato flour; stir over low heat until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the hot milk, stirring continuously until combined.

  4. Remove from heat and beat in the egg yolks one at a time.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the batter.

  2. Fill a large or several small well-buttered and heated souffle dishes.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.

  4. Serve immediately before it falls.

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. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Potato + gingertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together992 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air that makes the souffle rise; yolks enrich the base.
Potato flour
Thickens the milk mixture into a stable base that holds the risen structure.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and enriches the texture of the base.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the base and helps cream with butter to form a smooth mixture.
Preserved ginger
Provides the main flavour and aroma of the souffle.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the base, which the flour thickens into a smooth custard-like mixture.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Stiff whites hold air that lifts the souffle. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, so the souffle bakes flat and dense instead of rising.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, sugar, butter, egg, lemon):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, sugar, butter, egg, lemon. 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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