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Dessert

Coffee Souffle

A light dessert made with coffee, milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and gelatin, folded with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Coffee Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard base

  1. Soak the gelatin in a little cold water.

  2. In a double boiler, combine coffee, milk, half the sugar, and soaked gelatin.

  3. Heat until hot, then add the beaten yolks of the eggs mixed with the remaining sugar.

  4. Stir for a few minutes, then remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Fold and set

  1. Beat the egg whites until very stiff, then add vanilla.

  2. Fold the egg whites into the coffee mixture.

  3. Pour into a wet mold and let set.

Serve

  1. Serve with whipped 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Vanilla + coffeetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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
Yolks thicken the custard and whites, beaten stiff, give the soufflé its light airy structure.
Gelatine
Sets the coffee mixture so the soufflé holds its shape when unmoulded.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the coffee flavour into a creamy custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Strong coffee
Provides the main flavour and liquid of the soufflé.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites into the coffee mixture. Beaten whites trap air that gives the soufflé its lightness. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from deflating before the mixture sets.

“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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