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Mushroom Souffle

A baked mushroom soufflé made with butter, flour, mushroom liquor, cream, mushrooms, eggs, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Mushroom 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, then gradually add the mushroom liquor and cream, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Beat the egg yolks slightly and stir them into the sauce.

  4. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

  5. Add the chopped mushrooms and remove from heat.

Assemble and bake

  1. When slightly cool, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish and place it in a pan of hot water.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,500 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 thicken the sauce and whites, beaten stiff, lift the mixture so it rises and sets light.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth sauce that holds the soufflé base together.
Butter
Forms the roux with the flour and adds richness to the base.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the base a softer, silkier texture.
Mushroom liquor
Adds concentrated mushroom flavour and liquid to the sauce base.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten whites trap air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the whites leaves a dense result. Let the base cool slightly first so it does not melt the whites.

“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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