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Dessert

Cheese Souffle

A baked cheese soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, eggs, cheese, 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 350°F (175°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. Stir in the flour until smooth.

  3. Add the milk, salt, and cayenne or paprika.

  4. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

  5. Remove from heat.

Make the soufflé mixture

  1. Mix in the egg yolks and grated cheese.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a buttered baking dish or individual dishes.

  2. Place in a pan of hot water.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 35 minutes, or 15-20 minutes for individual dishes.

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

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Eggs
Egg whites trapped in the base expand with heat and lift the soufflé; yolks add richness and set the structure.
Butter
Fat that enriches the base and helps form the roux with flour.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a roux-based sauce that supports the airy mixture.
Milk
Liquid that, with the flour and butter, forms the thick base for the soufflé.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat, and helps give the soufflé its savoury taste.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the whites produces a dense, flat result.

“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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