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Dessert

Souffle Au Parmesan

A baked cheese soufflé made with Parmesan, milk, flour, eggs, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Souffle Au Parmesan

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the base

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

  2. In a saucepan, heat the milk until warm.

  3. In a bowl, mix flour and a pinch of salt.

  4. Gradually add warm milk to the flour, stirring until smooth.

Make the mixture

  1. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then fold in the grated Parmesan.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered souffle dish or small paper cases.

Bake

  1. Bake for 25-30 minutes until puffed and golden.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Parmesan cheese + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Parmesan cheese + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Whisked in to trap air and set the soufflé as it bakes.
Flour
Thickens the warm milk into a smooth base that holds the structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens and the eggs enrich.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and richness to the base.

The step that matters

Gradually add warm milk to the flour, stirring until smooth. Adding the milk slowly while stirring keeps the flour from forming lumps, giving a smooth base that thickens evenly before the eggs go in.

“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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