Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Potato Soufflee
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Boil one pint of cream.
Mix 2 tablespoonfuls of potato flour with the yolks of 4 eggs, add 1 ounce butter, 2 ounces powdered loaf sugar, and lemon peel.
Pour the boiled cream over the mixture.
Put the mixture in a stewpan on the fire, keep stirring, and take off just as it comes to a boil.
Let it cool, then mix in 6 yolks of eggs.
Bake and serve
Beat 6 egg whites to a snow, stir them in lightly.
Place the mixture on a dish and put it in the oven until properly risen.
Serve in the same dish; can be flavored with chocolate.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour and butter 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 thicken the base and whites, beaten to a snow, lighten it so it rises.
- Potato flour
- Starch thickens the cream mixture so it holds its shape around the whipped whites.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture, giving the soufflé a soft, tender texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender crumb.
- Powdered loaf sugar
- Sweetens the base and helps stabilise the egg foam.
The step that matters
Stirring the base on the heat. The mixture must be stirred constantly and removed as it just reaches a boil. Starch thickens as it heats, and overheating can scramble the egg yolks, leaving the base lumpy and weakening the rise.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, flour, butter, sugar, egg, lemon):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, flour, butter, sugar, egg, lemon. 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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