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Fish Souffle

A savory souffle made with lobster or fish, flour, butter, milk, eggs, anchovy essence, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fish Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the lobster or sieve the fresh fish.

Make the base

  1. Make a panada by cooking flour, butter, and milk together.

  2. Once cooked, add seasonings and flavorings.

  3. Add the fish to the panada and let it cool slightly.

Finish and cook

  1. Incorporate the egg yolks, beating well after each addition.

  2. Fold in the stiffly whisked egg whites.

  3. Pour the mixture into a prepared souffle tin.

  4. Steam steadily for 40 minutes.

  5. Coat the souffle with anchovy sauce and garnish with chopped parsley.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Eggs
Egg whites whisked stiff and folded in give the soufflé its light, risen structure; yolks enrich the base.
Flour
Cooked with butter and milk to form a panada, a thickened base that holds the soufflé together.
Butter
Cooked with flour to make the panada, adding richness and a smooth, fat-based texture.
Milk
Cooked with flour and butter to form the thickened panada that gives body to the mixture.
Lobster or fish
Forms the main filling, adding flavour and substance to the soufflé base.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly whisked whites trap air that gives the soufflé its rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the whites makes the soufflé heavy and flat.

“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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