Skip to main content
Main

Whiting, Souffle of

A baked fish souffle made with whiting, butter, flour, milk, cream, egg yolks, anchovy essence, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Whiting and anchovy share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 82 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Whiting, Souffle of

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Chop the cleaned whiting finely and remove the bones.

  2. Butter a souffle tin and fasten a well-buttered paper band around the top.

Make the base

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and stir in the flour, cooking without browning.

  2. Add the milk and stir until smooth.

  3. Add the cream and cook a little longer while stirring.

  4. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

  5. Mix in the egg yolks, anchovy essence, and fish.

  6. Season with pepper and salt.

Bake and serve

  1. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the mixture.

  2. Pour into the tin.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 40 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. Whiting + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together82 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Whiting + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Whisked to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts and sets the soufflé as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set into a custard-like texture when heated.
Butter
Enriches the base and, with flour, forms the roux that thickens the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a stable base that holds the whiting and air.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the thickened base, giving a smooth, creamy body.
Whiting
Provides the fish flavour and the main substance of the soufflé.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air in the whisked whites; stirring or deflating them makes the soufflé heavy and prevents it rising properly in the oven.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes