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Sturgeon Souffle

A baked sturgeon soufflé made with egg yolks, egg whites, milk, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sturgeon Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the base

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to create a roux.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.

Assemble and bake

  1. Remove from heat and mix in the cold sturgeon, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and egg yolks.

  2. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and bake for 15 minutes.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg whites
Beaten whites trap air, giving the soufflé its light, risen structure as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Yolks enrich the base and help it set into a tender, custardy texture.
Flour
Flour cooked in butter forms a roux that thickens the milk into a stable base.
Milk
Milk, thickened with the roux, forms the moist body of the soufflé.
Butter
Butter enriches the roux and adds flavour and richness to the base.
Sturgeon
Finely pressed fish provides the main flavour and tender body of the soufflé.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold the air that makes a soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in the mixture; stirring or deflating it will leave the soufflé dense and flat.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, pepper, egg, butter, flour, milk. 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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