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Dessert

Chocolate Souffle

A baked chocolate souffle made with butter, sugar, egg yolks, grated chocolate, vanilla, soaked bread, and stiffly beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the base

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream together the butter and sugar.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks, grated chocolate, and vanilla extract to the mixture.

  4. Incorporate the soaked and pressed bread until smooth.

Fold and bake

  1. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 45 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve in the baking dish with a napkin wrapped around it.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 air bubbles give the soufflé its light, risen structure as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help set the custard-like base as it bakes.
Bread
Soaked and pressed, it adds body and moisture to the base.
Grated chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and some richness to the mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb when creamed with sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and helps create a smooth, creamed texture with the butter.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold the air that lifts the soufflé. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the soufflé bakes flat and dense instead of rising.

“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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