Name: Cold Cheese Souffle
Ingredients: 1 oz. Gruyére cheese; 1 oz. Parmesan cheese; ½ pint whipped cream; ½ cup whipped aspic jelly; cayenne to taste; 2 teaspoons mustard; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Cheese and parmesan cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Cold Cheese Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Grate the Gruyère and Parmesan cheese.

Make the mixture

In a bowl, mix the cheeses, whipped cream, whipped aspic jelly, cayenne, mustard, and salt until well combined.

Fill and serve

Fill small soufflé cases with the mixture using a large piping bag and tube.
Sprinkle the tops with grated cheese and coralline pepper before serving.

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.

Cheese + parmesan cheesetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,041 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,805 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,655 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Parmesan cheese + mustardtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together545 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Parmesan cheese + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,566 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Gruyère cheese: Adds rich savoury flavour and body to the mixture.
Parmesan cheese: Contributes concentrated savoury, salty flavour.
Whipped cream: Provides airy volume and a light, creamy texture.
Whipped aspic jelly: Helps the mixture hold its shape and set when chilled.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the cheese and cream.

The step that matters

Whip the cream and aspic to the right stiffness before folding. Whipped cream and aspic trap air to give the soufflé its light structure. If they are under- or over-whipped, the mixture will be dense or grainy and may not hold its shape when set.