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Dessert

Cheese Souffle

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the base

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  3. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  4. Gradually add the milk, stirring until thickened.

  5. Remove from heat and mix in the grated cheese.

Add the eggs

  1. Beat the egg yolks and add to the cheese mixture.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture gently.

Bake

  1. Pour into a greased baking dish and bake for 25-30 minutes until puffed and golden.

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
Whites trap air for lift, and yolks add richness and set the custard structure.
Butter
Fat that enriches the base and helps it stay smooth and tender.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a stable sauce that supports the egg foam.
Milk
Liquid that, with the flour, forms the thick white sauce base.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat, and helps the soufflé set as it cooks.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the cheese mixture. Folding gently keeps the air in the stiff whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé dense and stops it rising well in the oven.

“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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