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Cheese Souffle

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 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

Make the base

  1. Melt 2 tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in 1 heaping tablespoonful of flour and cook for one minute, not letting it brown, stirring constantly.

  3. Gradually add 1/2 cupful of milk, stirring until smooth.

  4. Add 1/2 teaspoonful of salt and a dash of cayenne pepper, stirring.

  5. Remove the mixture from the heat.

  6. Stir in the beaten yolks of three eggs and 1 cupful of grated American or Parmesan cheese.

  7. Return the mixture to the heat and stir until the cheese is melted and the paste is smooth and consistent, being careful not to overcook.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and set aside to cool.

  2. When ready to use, fold in the well-beaten whites of the three eggs.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a pudding dish and bake in a hot oven for twenty to thirty minutes, keeping the oven door closed for the first ten minutes and not moving the soufflé until after fifteen minutes.

  4. Serve immediately after baking.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

903Calories
35 gProtein
36 gFat
109 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Milk + flourtop 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
Yolks enrich and thicken the base, while whipped whites lighten and raise the soufflé as it bakes.
Flour
Cooked with butter into a roux, it thickens the milk into a smooth base that holds the soufflé.
Butter
Fat enriches the roux and adds flavour to the base.
Milk
Liquid that, with the roux, forms the thick sauce base for the soufflé.
Cheese
Adds rich savoury flavour and body to the base once melted into it.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped well; deflating them by overmixing or stirring vigorously loses the lift that lets the soufflé rise 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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