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Dessert

Cheese Souffle

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the cornstarch, flour, salt, and paprika.

  3. Stir in the milk and cook until smooth.

  4. Remove from heat and add the beaten egg yolks and grated cheese.

  5. Beat the mixture until smooth and slightly cooled.

Bake and serve

  1. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour into a buttered baking dish.

  3. Set the dish in a pan of hot water and 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 + 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

Egg whites
Whipped air bubbles give the soufflé its light, risen structure as they set in the oven.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set into a tender, custardy texture.
Cheese
Adds rich flavor and fat to the base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the thickeners cook into a smooth sauce.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a stable sauce that holds the whipped whites.
Flour
Adds body to the sauce, supporting the soufflé's structure.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps those bubbles intact so the soufflé rises 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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