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Cheese Souffle

A light, airy cheese soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, eggs, cheese, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cheese Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick 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. Stir in the flour until combined.

  3. Gradually add the warm milk, stirring until thickened.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne, then remove from heat.

Finish the mixture

  1. Let the mixture cool slightly, then add the egg yolks one at a time.

  2. Stir in the grated cheese.

  3. Gently fold in the whisked egg whites until just combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a buttered soufflé dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 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
Whisked and folded in, they trap air and make the soufflé rise and become light.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help set the soufflé structure as it bakes.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and warm milk into a stable white sauce base.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavour and fat, and helps give the baked soufflé its body.
Butter
Fat that forms the roux with flour and adds richness to the base.
Milk
Liquid that, with flour, forms the thickened base the eggs and cheese are added to.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be whisked to soft peaks and folded in gently so the air is kept. Overmixing deflates the foam, and the soufflé will rise less and turn dense.

“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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