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Celery Souffles

A baked dish of celery puree, eggs, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Celery Souffles

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the celery

  1. Trim the celery, wash it, and cut it into slices.

  2. Blanch the celery in salted water, then drain it.

Make the celery base

  1. Combine the milk, bay leaf, mace, onion, and celery in a stewpan.

  2. Boil the mixture until tender.

  3. Remove the mace and bay leaf from the mixture.

  4. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

Make the soufflé mixture

  1. Heat the water and butter in another stewpan.

  2. Add a pinch of celery salt and bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Stir in the flour briskly for a few minutes over the heat.

  4. Add the celery puree.

  5. Let the mixture cool slightly.

  6. Stir in the grated Parmesan cheese.

  7. Gradually mix in the egg yolks and whole egg.

  8. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  9. Gently fold the egg whites into the mixture.

  10. Season the mixture with a little cayenne.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie dish and fill it only two-thirds full.

  2. Bake the pie dish in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 minutes.

  3. 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 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
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and lift the soufflé as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help set the soufflé structure as it cooks.
Flour
Cooked with butter and liquid, it thickens the base so it can hold the air.
Celery
Provides the main flavour and, puréed, adds body to the base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that is thickened and carries the celery flavour.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and richness to the base.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whisked to stiff peaks, and folding gently keeps that air in the mixture. Overmixing deflates it, so the soufflé rises less in the oven.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, milk, onion, butter, flour, parmesan cheese, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, milk, onion, butter, flour, parmesan cheese, 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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