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 ↓
Cheese Soufflee
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the macaroni
Boil the macaroni in water, then strain and cut into half‑inch pieces.
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the flour, milk, tomato puree, and seasonings; cook well.
Stir in the macaroni and 2 oz of cheese.
Bake and serve
Fill small china soufflé molds with the mixture, top with the remaining cheese, and place in a hot oven (400 °F / 200 °C) to brown.
Serve very hot.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,163 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Tomato + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,490 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Tomato + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,482 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
- Macaroni
- Provides the bulk and body of the mixture once it is cut into small pieces.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a sauce that holds the dish together.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
- Parmesan cheese
- Adds rich savoury flavour and helps the top brown in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour to the sauce and helps the flour cook smoothly.
- Tomato puree
- Adds acidity, colour and savoury depth to the sauce.
The step that matters
Cook the sauce well before adding the macaroni. Cooking the flour in butter and then the liquid until thickened removes raw flour taste and sets the sauce, so the mixture holds its shape and does not turn watery when baked.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, tomato, parmesan cheese, butter, flour):
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, tomato, parmesan cheese, butter, flour. 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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