Skip to main content
Main

Meat Souffle

A baked dish of finely chopped meat folded into a butter‑flour‑milk sauce and beaten eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

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 soufflé

  1. Make a sauce by melting the butter, then whisk in the flour, milk, salt, and pepper until smooth.

  2. Stir in the chopped meat and beaten egg yolks.

  3. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until just combined.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 to 45 minutes, until firm.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Butter
Enriches the sauce base and adds richness and flavour.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that gives the soufflé its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, keeping the mixture moist.
Cooked meat
Provides the main flavour and bulk of the soufflé.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture while setting.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, giving the soufflé its light, risen texture.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps those bubbles intact; stirring or overmixing deflates them, leaving a dense result.

“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.

You might also like

Meat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipesMeat CakesMeat Cakes35 recipes