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Salt Fish Souffle

A baked potato and salted cod mixture folded with eggs, forming a soufflé.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Salt Fish Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the base

  1. Peel and boil the potatoes for 30 minutes.

  2. Drain and mash the potatoes very fine.

  3. Mix in the shredded fish, butter, salt, pepper, and milk until well combined.

  4. Beat 2 eggs and stir them into the mixture.

Top and bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a serving dish and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

  2. Beat the whites of 2 eggs to stiff peaks, then add ¼ teaspoon salt and the yolks.

  3. Spread the egg mixture over the fish dish and return to the oven until browned.

  4. 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  5. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Mashed to form the bulk and body of the soufflé base.
Salted cod or other fish
Supplies the main flavour and savoury character of the dish.
Eggs
Whipped whites give lift, while the yolks enrich and bind the topping.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mashed mixture blends into a creamy base.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites must be whipped to stiff peaks without overbeating, since air trapped in the foam provides the rise. Underwhipped or deflated whites produce a flat, dense topping.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, pepper, milk, 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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