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Cheese Souffle

A baked cheese soufflé made with bread crumbs, milk, cheese, eggs, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it boils.

  2. Stir in the bread crumbs and mix until smooth.

  3. Add the grated cheese, salt, pepper, and beaten egg yolks.

Prepare and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Butter a baking dish and pour the mixture in.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

  4. Serve warm.

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. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for lift, while yolks enrich the custard-like base.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the hot milk and thicken the base so it holds the whipped structure.
Cheese
Adds rich flavor and fat, giving the souffle its savory taste and body.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the bread crumbs and forms the moist base for the mixture.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Whites are full of trapped air. Stirring or deflating them removes the bubbles that make the souffle rise, so the mixture should be folded in with a light, sweeping motion.

“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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