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Dessert

Ralston Cheese Souffle

A baked cheese soufflé made with Ralston Health Food, eggs, cheese, milk, butter, mustard, cayenne pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Ralston Cheese Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, cook Ralston Health Food and milk for 5 minutes.

  2. Add butter, egg yolks, mustard, salt, cayenne pepper, and cheese to the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air that lifts the soufflé as it bakes, while the yolks add richness and set the structure.
Ralston health food
Cooked with milk to thicken the base, giving the soufflé body to hold the rising air.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat, and helps give the baked soufflé its richness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base with the cooked cereal, adding moisture and softness to the custard.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while whole. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out the bubbles, so the soufflé will not rise well. Fold slowly with a large spatula to keep the mixture airy.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cheese, milk, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cheese, milk, butter, pepper. 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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