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Chestnut Souffle

A baked chestnut soufflé made with chestnuts, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, breadcrumbs, lemon, and served with plain cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chestnut Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the chestnuts

  1. Boil the chestnuts in salted water until tender, then drain and remove the brown inner skin.

  2. Return the chestnuts to boiling salted water and cook for 2 more minutes.

  3. Press the chestnuts through a sieve and keep warm.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter, then mix in the mashed chestnuts.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks, milk, and fine bread crumbs, then mix well.

  3. Add lemon juice and grated lemon rind to taste.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a buttered mold and cover tightly.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

  3. Serve with plain cream.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Chestnut + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Chestnut + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together191 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Chestnuts
Provide the main bulk and mild, starchy flavour of the soufflé.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they lift and set the soufflé as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help bind it to a tender, custardy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture, loosening the batter so it stays light and soft.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help give the mixture body and structure.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whipped whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense.

Swap the chestnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Peasfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Chestnutthe original

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