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Dessert

Potato Souffle

A baked potato-based soufflé made with butter, milk, eggs, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Potato Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash and scrub the potatoes in cold water.

  2. Dry the potatoes with a cloth.

  3. Bake the potatoes in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 to 45 minutes until soft.

  4. Check doneness by inserting a fork; they should be soft inside.

  5. Cut the baked potatoes in half and scoop out the insides, keeping the skins intact.

  6. Rub the potato insides through a wire sieve into a plate.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, combine the butter and milk and bring to a boil.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Stir in 3 ounces of the sifted potatoes until smooth.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool on a trivet.

Finish the soufflé

  1. Beat the yolks of 3 eggs and mix them in one by one.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.

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

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk and body that holds the light soufflé together.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the base, while whipped whites trap air for lift and a light texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the potato mixture into a smooth base.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whipped whites hold air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Overmixing or stirring them vigorously knocks out that air, so the result turns dense instead of light.

Swap the potato

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

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

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