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Dessert

Chocolate Souffle

A baked chocolate soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, chocolate, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate 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. Cream the butter and flour together.

  2. Slowly pour in the hot milk while stirring.

  3. Melt the grated chocolate with sugar and hot water, cooking until smooth.

  4. Cook the butter and flour mixture in a double boiler for 8 minutes.

  5. Remove from heat and add the beaten egg yolks, vanilla, and chocolate mixture.

  6. Let the mixture cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Once cool, fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour into a buttered dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with whipped cream mixed with powdered sugar.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 that lifts the mixture and gives the souffle its light, risen structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help set the base as the souffle bakes.
Flour
Thickens the butter base with butter so the milk mixture holds together.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and some body to the base.
Hot milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a smooth sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Egg whites hold the air that makes a souffle rise. Folding gently, after the base has cooled, keeps that air from collapsing, so the souffle stays light when baked.

“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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