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Cheese Souffle

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, rub together the butter and flour over medium heat until bubbling.

  2. Gradually add the hot milk, seasoning with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Slowly stir in the grated cheese and remove from heat.

Combine and bake

  1. Add the beaten egg yolks and cool the mixture.

  2. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered pudding dish.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 to 20 minutes, until set like custard.

  5. 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. Flour + buttertop 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).

Flour and butter 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
Egg whites trapped in the mixture expand in the oven and set the soufflé into a light, airy structure.
Flour
Cooked with butter, it forms a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth, stable base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the roux thickens and the cheese is stirred into.
Cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat to the base, giving the soufflé its savoury character.
Butter
Enriches the roux with fat and flavour, and greases the dish to help the soufflé release.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while intact. Vigorous stirring knocks out the trapped air, so the soufflé rises less and turns dense. Fold gently to keep the bubbles.

“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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