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Cheese Souffle

A light, baked cheese soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, cheese, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese 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.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Mix in the flour, salt, cayenne, and milk until smooth.

  3. Simmer gently, stirring constantly, until thick like melted butter.

  4. Stir in the grated cheese.

  5. Transfer the mixture to a bowl.

  6. Mix in the beaten egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Whisk the egg whites to a solid froth.

  2. Fold the froth into the mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a small round tin, filling it halfway.

  4. Pin a napkin around the dish.

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

  6. Serve immediately after baking.

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

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Butter
Enriches the base and carries flavour while the flour is cooked into a roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the soufflé's structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a smooth panada.
Parmesan cheese
Adds rich savoury flavour and fat to the base.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and add richness and colour to the mixture.
Egg whites
Whisked into a foam that lifts and aerates the soufflé as it bakes.

The step that matters

Fold the froth into the mixture. Whisked egg whites trap air in their proteins. Folding gently keeps that air in, so the soufflé rises in the oven rather than collapsing.

“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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