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Pineapple Soufflee

A baked pineapple soufflé with a pineapple sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and sherry work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 228 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Soufflee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Grease a mold with warm butter and tie kitchen paper around it, greasing the paper as well.

Make the soufflé base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour until smooth.

  2. Add the milk and stir until it boils; cook for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat, stir in the sugar and the yolks of 3 eggs one at a time, then add the chopped pineapple.

  4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a little sugar until stiff peaks form.

  5. Gently fold the egg whites into the pineapple mixture, then pour into the prepared mold.

Steam and make the sauce

  1. Place the mold in a saucepan of boiling water, covering halfway up the sides, and steam for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  2. For the sauce, combine the chopped pineapple, sugar, lemon juice, and water in a small saucepan and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Mix the cornflour with a little cold water, then stir it into the boiling mixture until it thickens.

  4. Add the cochineal and sherry, strain, and pour around the soufflé before serving.

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. Pineapple + sherrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pineapple + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together885 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air, lifting the soufflé as it steams; yolks enrich the base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk base into a smooth panada that holds the soufflé together.
Butter
Enriches the base and greases the mold so the soufflé releases cleanly.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the base, which the flour thickens into a creamy structure.
Pineapple
Adds fruity flavour and moisture to the soufflé and the sauce.
Cornflour
Thickens the sauce so it coats the soufflé rather than running off.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only while whipped to stiff peaks. Folding gently keeps that air in the mixture, so the soufflé rises in the steamer rather than turning dense.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

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