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Meat Souffle

A baked dish of meat in a white sauce with bread crumbs and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Meat Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Make a white sauce using the butter, flour, and milk.

  2. Stir in the bread crumbs, beaten egg yolks, and parsley or onion.

Bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until very stiff and fold them carefully into the mixture.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  3. Bake for about 35 minutes in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C).

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites lift the soufflé and set into a light, airy structure when baked.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a white sauce that holds the mixture together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, adding moisture and a soft texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, giving the soufflé a tender crumb.
Cooked meat
Supplies the main savory filling that gives the soufflé its flavor.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff whites trap air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or beating it down deflates the mixture, so it bakes flat and dense.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, flour, meat, milk, parsley, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, flour, meat, milk, parsley, 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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