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Spinach Souffle

A baked spinach dish folded with butter, eggs, cream, and spices, topped with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 603 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Spinach Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the spinach

  1. Boil and chop the spinach.

  2. While hot, stir in the butter, beaten egg, salt, nutmeg, sugar, and pepper.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

Fold and bake

  1. When ready, fold in the cream and stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour into a baking dish and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes covered, then 5 minutes uncovered.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately on fried bread.

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. Spinach + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they lighten the mixture and let it rise in the oven.
Spinach
Forms the bulk of the base, giving the souffle its flavor and green color.
Beaten egg
Adds structure and body to the spinach base as it sets with heat.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the souffle tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more rounded flavor.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that makes the souffle rise. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out that air, so fold gently and keep the mixture from deflating before it goes into the oven.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Spinachthe original
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Leekfits about as well

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