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Spinach Souffle

A baked dish of cooked spinach folded with beaten egg whites and yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Spinach 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.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mix the cooked spinach with the beaten egg yolk.

  2. Stir over low heat until the egg is set.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

  4. Gently fold in the well-beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease individual china cups or buttered paper boxes.

  2. Fill them half full with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

  4. 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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Spinach + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Spinach + buttertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Spinach
Provides the bulk and flavor base, and its moisture shapes the soufflé's texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the spinach and adds richness and body to the mixture.
Egg whites
Whipped air, folded in gently, lifts the soufflé as it bakes and gives it its light structure.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the well-beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whites intact. Those bubbles expand in the oven and make the soufflé rise; overmixing deflates them and leaves a dense result.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter. 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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