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Dessert

Vanilla Soufflee

A light, airy dessert made with eggs, butter, sugar, milk, flour, and vanilla, steamed in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Vanilla Soufflee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a clean saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and mix well.

  3. Stir in the milk and bring to a boil; let it boil for 3 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and egg yolks one at a time, then add the vanilla.

Fold and steam

  1. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Butter a plain mold and line it with greased kitchen paper.

  3. Pour the mixture into the mold, cover with greased paper, and place in a saucepan of boiling water (water should reach halfway up the mold).

  4. Steam for 1¼ hours.

Serve

  1. Turn out onto a hot dish, pour wine sauce around, and serve immediately.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Whipped whites provide the airy structure that lifts the soufflé, while yolks add richness and set.
Butter
Adds fat for rich flavour and a tender texture in the base.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a stable base that holds the whipped whites.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a smooth sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the whipped egg mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be whisked to stiff peaks and folded gently so the air is kept. Overmixing deflates the foam, and the soufflé loses its lift.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

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