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Cauliflower and Tomato Souffle

A baked souffle made with cauliflower, tomatoes, eggs, flour, and butter, topped with browned crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Cauliflower and Tomato 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.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and gradually stir in the milk.

  3. Bring to a boil over heat, then add the yolks and seasonings.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Assemble

  1. Divide the cauliflower into small sprigs and slice the tomatoes.

  2. In a greased souffle dish, layer some of the mixture, followed by cauliflower and tomato slices, repeating until all ingredients are used.

  3. Finish with a layer of the mixture and sprinkle browned crumbs on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20-30 minutes.

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

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

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

  4. Cauliflower + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Flour + cauliflowertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the souffle its rise and light texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set into a custard-like structure as it bakes.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a white sauce that holds the souffle mixture together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, adding moisture and softness.
Cauliflower
Provides the main vegetable bulk and moisture within the layers.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, contrasting with the mild base.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whites intact. Deflating them makes the souffle rise poorly and turn dense.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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