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Potato Souffle

A baked potato stuffed with mashed potato, butter, milk, egg whites, salt, and pepper, then baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Potato Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potato base

  1. Bake the potatoes for 45 minutes.

  2. Cut the baked potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides into a hot bowl.

  3. Mash the potato until light and fine.

  4. Add the butter, boiling milk, salt, and pepper to the mashed potato.

  5. Fold in half of the egg whites.

Fill and brown

  1. Fill the potato skins with the mixture and cover with the remaining egg whites.

  2. Brown in the oven, taking care not to burn the skins.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the light, fluffy body and the shell that holds the filling.
Egg whites
Whipped foam that lifts the mixture and sets into a airy, puffed texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the mashed potato for a smoother bite.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mashed potato becomes soft and spoonable.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites trap air only when they are gently folded in. Stirring or deflating them loses volume, so the soufflé will not rise and puff properly in the oven.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg, pepper. 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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