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Lamb Souffle

A baked lamb soufflé made with butter, onion, green pepper, flour, paprika, cream, broth, breadcrumbs, egg yolks, chopped lamb, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lamb Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan and cook the onion and green pepper until yellowed but not browned.

  2. Add the flour, salt, and paprika; cook until frothy.

  3. Gradually stir in the cream and lamb broth or boiling water; cook until the sauce boils.

  4. Strain the sauce over the bread crumbs.

Assemble and bake

  1. Beat in the egg yolks until slightly cooked, then remove from heat and stir in the chopped lamb.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Turn the mixture into a buttered dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 25 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + lambtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 into foam, they lift and puff the mixture as it bakes, giving the soufflé its light texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce gently and enrich it, helping bind the mixture into a set custard.
Flour
Thickens the cream and broth into a smooth sauce that supports the lamb and egg structure.
Cooked lamb
Provides the main savoury flavour and substance of the soufflé.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the set texture of the sauce base.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the hot sauce and add body, helping the mixture hold together.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whites. Stirring or deflating the foam makes the soufflé heavy and stops it rising well in the oven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, flour, cream, lamb, bread, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, flour, cream, lamb, bread, egg. 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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