Skip to main content
Main

Potato Souffle

A light, airy baked potato dish made with mashed potatoes, butter, cream, egg whites, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

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.

Prepare the base

  1. Steam the potatoes in their jackets until done.

  2. Peel and mash the potatoes while hot.

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

Fold in the egg whites

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently stir into the potato mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Heap the mixture in a baking dish or drop spoonfuls onto greased paper.

  2. Dust with grated cheese and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

  3. 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 + 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, fluffy body of the soufflé once mashed smooth.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff froth, they trap air that lifts and sets the mixture as it bakes.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mashed potato soft and smooth.
Butter
Contributes fat for richer flavour and a smoother, silkier texture.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and golden colour.

The step that matters

Gently stir in the egg whites. Stiffly whipped egg whites hold trapped air that gives the soufflé its rise. Stirring too vigorously knocks that air out, so the mixture bakes up flat and dense.

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.

More potato soufflé recipes

Sweet 4 See all 60 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipes