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Potato Souffle

A light, baked potato dish folded with beaten egg whites and finished with grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potato Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender.

  2. Peel and mash the potatoes while hot.

  3. Add the butter, cream, salt, and pepper to the mashed potatoes.

  4. Beat the mixture until very smooth and light.

Fold and shape

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the potato mixture.

  3. Heap the mixture onto greased parchment paper, a spoonful at a time.

  4. Dust the heap with grated cheese.

Bake

  1. Bake until golden brown.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Potato + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together959 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the light, starchy body that the soufflé mixture is built on.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten to stiff peaks, giving the soufflé its rise and airy structure.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mash soft and smooth.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the mash.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the potato mixture. Egg white foam holds the air that makes the soufflé rise. Stirring vigorously knocks out that air, so the bake comes out dense and flat instead of light.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, egg, cheese. 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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